With all odds against us
by GentlemanRDP
Summary: With the hopeful close of an seven month long case, the entire team finds themselves stretching thin and changing in their own ways. Two of those team members; Derek Morgan, and Spencer Reid seem to become particularly effected...by one another.
1. Introduction

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; Derek Morgan x Spencer Reid (( Not yet though. ))  
**Genre**; Romance, Angst, Fluff, Hurt / Comfort, Case-work.  
**Rating**; M overall. But PG-13 for this chapter.  
**Warnings**; Homosexual relations, Spoilers, Drug use, Reid-centric, Graphic discriptions. Gore. Violence. (( But not in this chapter. ))  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; So here I am, bored and waiting for a reply to the FANTASTIC Morgan x Reid roleplay that I have off-site. Oh my god, best RP ever. Seriously. Ahem, alas, I have no reply...so I continue to wait, and while I wait, I write about the two delicious sex gods that I'm waiting to fantasize about. Anyway, This storyline is based slightly on the idea of our RP, I'm changing quite a few things though. I wanted something heavier and longer than my last fic. I hope you enjoy. Read and Review, please!

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_"Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain."_

_- Author Unknown -  
_

* * *

They'd been working on this case for over seven months now.

Seven months, one week, and three days.

Six-thousand, one-hundred and ten hours, forty-seven minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.

But who was keeping track anyway?

Reid sure was. Funny enough though, it wasn't a conscious thing for him. He'd been doing this sort of thing since he was just a kid. Then again, to a lot of people, he still was a kid. Spencer Reid was one of those people that paid attention to everything around him even when he didn't realize that he was doing it. It was one of the many qualities what made him such a fantastic profiler; along with his eidetic memory, outstanding ability to absorb endless facts, and the astronomical processing speed of his brain.

Now wait, you're asking why this case was taking so long if Spencer was so great.

Well, you see, this particular unknown subject, their unsub, was very very good at what he did. Unfortunately, what he did was kill for a living.

When the team had first been debriefed on the case, it seemed like any other case that came across J.J's desk. Little did they know. So far, there had been a total of fifteen victims since they had gotten the case, none of them had seemed to be related or connected in any sort of important way. Ahh, but that wasn't to say that they weren't connected, because they most definitely were, but it just didn't seem to lead them anywhere.

Spencer was the first to begin noticing the connections.

The first and easiest one to spot was that the biological sexes of the victims alternated. The first known victim was female, the next was male, the one after was female, and so on and so forth. Spencer had mentioned this when they had heard of the sixth victim, a male by the name of Kevin Long. This in and of itself was quite unusual, but it went along with the fact that this case had no sexual components. Had there been a sexual purpose to these murders, it would have at least shown them that they were dealing with a bisexual individual, but right now, they didn't know anything about their unsub - just that, whoever they were, they were incredibly smart.

The second connection that Spencer had noticed was the ages of the victim. The first known victim, Aileen Brown, was just eighteen years old. The second victim, Cole Davis, was twenty years old. The third victim, Emma Flores, was twenty-two years old. The age of the victim rose two years with each discovery. This connection threw the entire team for a loop. Generally, killers kept their ages approximately the same, however, this one had nothing but a simple pattern. Reid commented once that this could have been a sign of severe OCD, Obsessive compulsive disorder. It made perfect sense, after all, the victims didn't seem to be chosen for personal reasons, other than the fact that they met the criteria of a rather disturbing check-list.

The third connection was the times of death. Each victim was found on the first of every month. Again, another sign of obsessive compulsive disorder, Spencer had pointed out. They'd dealt with unsubs showing the signs of this disorder before, but they usually devolved sooner or later, however, this unsub didn't show any signs of slowing down or breaking their patterns.

Finally, there was a forth connection between the victims. This one, Reid spotted after they had heard news of the eighth victim, Owen Price. From the beginning, Spencer had noticed something odd about the names and the order in which they were appearing.

Aileen Brown. Cole Davis. Emma Flores. Gabriel Harris. Isa Johnson. Kevin Long, Mia Nelson. Finally, Owen Price.

Upon realizing the connection, Spencer had quickly gone to the board in the middle of the BAU room, right in front of their round table, circling the beginning letter in each victim's first name and last name. Alphabetical. The connection was alphabetical. Meaning that the victim after Owen Price would have a first name beginning with Q and a last name beginning with R. With the other connections, that also meant that this would be a woman who was thirty-four years old. Low and behold, on the first of the next month, thirty-four year old Quinta Rodriguez had been found in a seven foot hole dug in a parking garage, she was buried alive under hundreds of muddy old shoes. She had been dead for at least three hours by the time that the team had arrived.

They'd been too late.

But they weren't giving up.

They'd put this unsub away, sooner or later.

Unfortunately, it seemed like it would be a lot later.

The killer had already been at large for seven solid months, from January to July, it wasn't until April of the following year that the members of the BAU really seemed to be getting somewhere in the case.

Little did they know that it was very very far from being over.

* * *

**Author's Notes**; As you can see, this little chapter...if I can even call it a real chapter...was little more than a tease. I just wanted to introduce you guys to the case, without fuddling it up with a bunch of characterization. It feels a little like an essay, and it was quite dry, I know. [/shot] But do not fear, my lovelies! The next chapter will be much better, I assure you! But it won't be the next thing that I post up. After this, I will be posting a reference list of the killing victims, just so you guys [and myself] can stay on top of understanding things. Though it was bad, I hope that it wasn't too terrible! 3 Much love to all of you! Stay with me, yes? Yes!

**Author's Notes [2.0]**; This chapter was very slightly updated. I dare you to catch what I actually changed. Ahahhaa! ... Ha!


	2. Reference Victim List 1

Victims list, so far...

**Author's notes**; This is strictly for reference, both yours and mine. I've been working hard, you see? And I'm quite proud of how this is coming together so far, watch...Now I'm gonna find out that I've made a mistake somewhere. Oh well.

Here is the format to the list, so you understand a bit more.  
[[ Name ]] [[ Sex ]] [[ Age ]]  
Ta-dah, easy, yes? I sure hope so. Later on, I may update this list with the causes of death, along with where the bodies were found, but that won't be until later, and when I update it, I will also repost it so you guys won't have to scroll all the way back here just to find it. I hope this makes things a little easier to stay caught up with. This storyline is a hell of a lot more complicated than I ever planned it to be ^^;

* * *

[[ Aileen Brown ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Eighteen ]]

[[ Cole Davis ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty ]]

[[ Emma Flores ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-two ]]

[[ Gabriel Harris ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-four ]]

[[ Isa Johnson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-six ]]

[[ Kevin Long ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-eight ]]

[[ Mia Nelson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty ]]

[[ Owen Price ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-two ]]

[[ Quinta Rodriguez ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-four ]]

[[ Sean Taylor ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-six ]]

[[ Una Vincent ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-eight ]]

[[ Wesley Xander ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty ]]

[[ Yvonne Ziegler ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-two ]]

[[ Anthony Barnes ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-four ]]

[[ Claire Diaz ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-six ]]

[[ Evan Foster ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-eight ]]

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Victim number seventeen? Soon to come?


	3. Chapter 1

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; N/A [This will come later, I'm just not sure how much later,]  
**Genre**; Drama, Crime.  
**Rating**; R [For me being a major case of yuck for letting Derek doing icky things to a girl _O; ]  
**Warnings**; Scary-tastic hetero-action [Sorry Spencer, no luvin' for you yet,] Graphic descriptions, Disturbing images.  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Today was very long, and very hard. I woke up with the worst migrane ever and spent nearly seven hours alternating between puking my guts out and holding cold rags to my head. Once I felt better, I ate nearly a pound of lemon...pound cake, and it was delicious. Unfortunately, I can already feel my thighs growing. Eugh. I'll feel better if you guys give me reviews! [HintWinkSneeze] Also, the information in this little...thingy at the top of each chapter, from this chapter onward each blurby thing will have warnings, pairings, and such only for the chapter that it preceeds, unlike the first one in which it's a general idea for the entire story.

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_"The more we are filled with thoughts of lust the less we find true romantic love,"_

- Doug Horton -

* * *

The scent of her perfume seemed to permeate everything in the room, even the smell of his own cologne. cucumber and melon, that's what it was. With a high-pitched whine, she dug her sparkling blue acrylic nails into the collar of his shirt and tugged him past the door into her impressively sized two bedroom apartment. Once he was past the door-frame, she kicked it shut with one spiked heel, he gave an approving growl against her plush lips as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

Her name was Sasha...or Sylvette...or something like that. It started with an _'S,'_ and that was all that he really needed to know. Derek Morgan had been with far too many women to remember yet another of their names, but in the end, he wasn't going to stress himself over it. He'd never been with the same girl twice anyway, and he knew that this girl was no different.

She even looked similar to most of the girls that he'd been with, especially lately. Her skin was like burnt sugar, darker than his own complexion, but softer and smoother, and a thousand times more supple. She had dark black hair down to her waist, it was surprisingly sleek and cut in a choppy manner that showed off how sassy she could really be - her bangs framed her face and focused all attention on those bright chocolate-colored eyes of hers, or maybe it was her fake lashes that drew him into her eyes so quickly. His palms traveled across her waist, sliding over the soft crimson fabric of her halter-top. That shirt showed off just the right about of cleavage, not too much and not too little. Just the way that he liked it.

Suddenly, her arms wrapped behind her neck and her legs soon wrapped tight around his hips. He was lucky that he had his level of upper-body strength, or he might have been off-guard from the way that he suddenly had to support all of her. Then again, she didn't weigh very much at all, and she was several inches shorter than him, really...the only place that she could beat him in mass was in her chest, and thank god for that.

"Down the hallway..." She moaned through burgundy lips, against his mouth, slicking her tongue across his bottom lip, "...To the left," Her voice was practically a purr. They both knew what was coming, and neither of them were willing to wait.

Derek's ears perked at the directions and he knew exactly where she was leading him.

The anticipation was nearly killing him. This case had lasted for what felt like forever and what he needed right now, what he really needed right now, was a little relief. Relief that only a pretty lady like this could give.

Catching her lips again, he scoped out the cavern of her mouth as he took her down the hallway and to the first door on the left, he pushed the door open with one foot and was met with the sight of a large luxurious bed. Derek didn't bother to turn the lights on. The room was bathed in the warm honey-colored light from a lamp-post outside, the blinds were cracked open just enough to hint to the silhouette of the bed, the outlight of a lamp, and the pictures and trinkettes all hung and arranged on the walls. Mmm, but there where more important things to pay attention to than the walls, like this gorgeous woman trapped in his arms, for example.

He laid her on the bed; relishing in the way that her eyes glinted in the dark light of the bedroom, her hair fanning out beneath her, her black leather mini-skirt riding up her thighs in a painfully teasing way that caused that insatiable beast in him to practically beg for attention. As his hands propped himself above her, he watched her and the cat-like way she arched her back, her legs still wound tight around his waist, grinding herself against him. A devilish glint rose into his eyes as he lowered himself down, cupping one of her breasts with a strong hand, and catching the side of her neck with his mouth, slowly dragging his teeth against the tender flesh.

...But the moment was short-lived.

The two of them broke away from one another reluctantly when a loud ring came from the confines of Derek's back pocket. There was a deep sigh of disappointment as the woman drew her legs away from Derek, she rolled her eyes away from the man as he answered his phone, "Hotch, you'd better have a damned good reason for calling, man," Then again, Derek knew that Hotch had a painfully bad reason for calling. There was only one reason why Hotch ever called.

"Morgan, we need you down here at BAU as soon as possible,"

Work.

Derek sighed and rubbed a hand against the back of his head, looking down to his temporary companion and offering an almost apologetic expression as the unit cheif continued on.

"Another body has just been found,"

Derek nodded, even though he knew that Aaron Hotchner couldn't see it, "Yeah...I'll be down there," He agreed before hanging up. His expression was instantly grim, and all business. It was in that moment that he changed from being Derek_ 'Ladie's man' _Morgan to being Supervisory Special Agent Morgan.

"You gotta go, huh?" The girl frowned and Derek could see the outline of her lip even in the dark room.

"Sorry babe, duty calls,"

She sat up fluidly and draped her arms on his shoulders, "Come back tomorrow night?" She practically pleaded, pressing teasing kisses against his jaw-bone.

He had to wrench himself away just to keep a handle on his control, "Sure thing, baby. I'll call you as soon as we get back to Quantico,"

The girl seemed satisfied by this empty promise, if her beaming smile was any indication. She blew him a kiss as he got up, straightened himself out, and left the room. In a flash, he was out of the apartment, down the stairs, and in his black SUV, driving off to the BAU, attempting to ignore the unsatisfied cravings in his veins.

Likewise, each member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit got their very own private call from their unit chief that night. Each one dragging themselves reluctantly to the office. Derek Morgan. Spencer Reid. Emily Prentiss. David Rossi. Penelope Garcia, and one liason by the name of Jennifer Jareau, otherwise known as simply J.J.

Agents Hotchner, Rossi, Garcia, Jareau, and Morgan were already there by the time Spencer arrived at the BAU. The young genius was quite the mess at this time, just like most of the other members; his clothes were thrown on half heartedly, his hair was uncombed, and his shoes happened to be on the wrong feet. Speaking of the rest of the team, none of them looked very good or happy to be there. Hotch had heavy bags under his eyes. Rossi had forgotten his jacket at home, and didn't happen to be wearing a pair of socks. Garcia's hair was sticking up every which-way, and her face was lacking in it's usual palette of bright colors. Prentiss's hair was soaked and disshelved since she'd just gotten out of the shower [she was currently pushed away from the table trying to peel the water off of her dark hair with a fine-toothed comb. J.J couldn't seem to stop yawning and rubbing at her eyes.

Then, there was Derek Morgan. The man seemed to be on edge. His eyes were sharp as he watched every move that Hotch made, and he was continuously rapping his fingers on the edge of the table, one of his feet was bouncing lightly. Edgy indeed. Spencer half frowned at the display and moved over to take a seat next to the dark-skinned agent, he slung his messenger bag on his lap and drew his thermos of overly sugary coffee up to his mouth, "You picked her up at the bus-station? Don't you usually get ladies at the club?" Derek rose a brow and looked over in confusion. Sure, Spencer was a great profiler, but how? "There's a bus-schedule under your seat and you smell like perfume," Spencer informed before taking a handkerchief from his pocket and unceremoniously wiping it against the side of Derek's mouth.

Morgan pulled away momentarily and jerked a brow up, "What are you d - ...?"

Spencer lifted the white cloth, "Magenta isn't really your color," He referred to the smear of lipstick.

Derek laughed gently, some of his tension dripping away as he propped an elbow onto the table, and used his other hand to wipe at his lips just in case Reid had missed any of the purple smears, "Last time I try to get all gorgeous for you, pretty boy," He teased, all in good nature, which Spencer obviously received well if that grin on his face was any indication. There was a soft round of laughter around the table, at least until Hotch cleared his throat to steer the team's attention onto himself. He didn't want to be here any more than the others did.

"Just as I told you all over the phone, another body has been just been found. This one, right here in Virginia," All of the team member lifted their heads slowly, focusing their eyes on Hotch, "Just like with all of the other murders so far, a single index card was left taped to the bottom of the victim's left foot," Hotch turned to the board and pointed to a collection of crime scene photos. In every single picture, there was a small white index card printed with the illustration of an uroboros - a snake set in a circle, consuming it's own tail. The illustration was bold, but also very detailed, and was the only reason that the team even knew that these seemingly random murders were connected.

The index cards were left for the team, the unsub wanted them to know what he was doing, he didn't want them to miss one single murder.

"The victim's name is Evan Foster, he was pronounced dead two hours ago," Hotch pulled out a manilla folder, "These pictures were faxed to use just a few moments ago," He held up the grizzly snapshots and Garcia turned her head away, covering her throat with one hand, "He was found beneath a desk at one of the local day-care centers when the manager had gone back after forgetting some important paperwork. She called police immediately," The entirety of the team took their time glancing over the photos. Reid took the longest time, absorbing each miniscule detail that the darkly lit photos had to offer. Just like with the other victims so far, this person was calculated. Clearly, they were dealing with a very organized killer, and definitely one who had been doing this for a long time. There was never any evidence at the scenes; no fingerprints, no hair, no nothing. Nothing was at the scene that the unsub didn't want them to find. The team hadn't seen a killer this prepared since Frank Brightkoff.

The thought made Spencer swallow hard, as he looked up, "Unlike the other male victims so far, this one appears to be in better physical condition," Reid noted, "This could indicate that either he's getting more bold about what risk level of victim he takes on, or he's improving himself to..." He cleared his throat, "...Make himself more effective than before,"

Prentiss glanced over, and gave a suggestion, "Couldn't he have just restrained his victim with drugs? We've seen that before with this unsub,"

"You don't die with that sort of expression if you've been given debilitating drugs," Reid mentioned, tapping the pictures against the desk to straighten them, "Besides, there's heavy bruising around the neck, while some of that might have been from the...the tongue-depressors," Suddenly, the doctor's office was a thousand times more terrifying than before, "These particular bruises," Reid turned the photo and pointed accordingly, "Clearly came from fingers,"

Spencer continued to stare at the photographs. He'd seen a lot of disturbing things in his life, but just the sight of this made his throat burn. The man was curled in on himself beneath the desk, with his knees under himself and his head cranked painfully to one side. His mouth was stretched wide around what appeared to be between one and two dozen tongue-depressors. Popsicle sticks. The man's throat was bruised with dark violets and deep browns, and when one looked close you could see how the sticks of wood were deforming the throat from the inside out. But what killed Reid the most was that look on his face; utter horror and terror.

This man knew what was coming, but he couldn't stop it...sort of like when Hankel had...

Before they could begin throwing around any more ideas, there was a light rap of fingers against the door, it pushed open to reveal the pilot. Sure, the crime had happened in Virginia, but it was far enough away from Quantico that it would be worth it to take the jet. Hotch grabbed another stack of files, "We'll continue discussing this on the jet, we need to get out to that crime scene," The unit cheif was the first out of the door. The other agents followed suit, in a practically single-file order; J.J, Garcia, Prentiss, Rossi, Morgan, and finally Reid, in all his mismatching sock glory, still nursing his sugary coffee.

* * *

**Author's Notes**; Ahem, so it's starting off pretty slow, I know, and my chapters are sort of short, but I don't like making HUGE epically long chapters, I find that I start loosing my concentration and can't stick to my story line xD Anyway, so there it is, the first official chapter; extra information on the case, along with Derek's womanizing, and some playful teasing between Morgan and Reid, hurk, but no loving yet. Nope nope, if you want the sexy times between those two hunky boys, you're just going to have to keep reading ;]

I'd like to note, that I don't have a beta...I guess that I'm sort of my own xD So there are bound to be mistakes and such, I do my best to catch them though.


	4. Chapter 2

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; Nope, not yet.  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Generally creepy, and a very tiny snippet of humor.  
**Rating**; PG-13  
**Warnings**; Uhm...actually, there's not really anything bad in this chapter, I'm not even sure that I really mention death this time o.O; Wow...  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Living off of cake and crackers. What an interesting life. Anyway, another chapter, here it is. Wow, I'm usually not so fast at updating, I can't guarantee how long I'll actually be able to update so quickly _O; but hopefully this pace lasts for a while. Read and review! Yes, yes, please!

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_"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born,"_

_- Anais Nin -__

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_

It didn't take the team long at all to cram themselves into the confines of the jet. J.J and Prentiss sat together, while Rossi sat distanced from the rest of the group, leaving Derek and Spencer to sit across from one another. Hotch was on the other side of Rossi's row, but he didn't stay there for long. Once the jet had leveled itself out, he rose to his feet, to ensure that everyone could hear him properly.

"When we arrive, J.J, Prentiss, and I will be heading to the local police department," Hotch turned his attention to the dark haired female agent, "They've already contacted the family of the victim, they've agreed to come down to the department for questioning, I'd like you to take care of that, Prentiss. Hopefully, we'll be able to find some sort of lead through them. We need to continue learning as much about our victims as possible," He then turned his attention to the other side of the jet, "Rossi, Morgan, and Reid, I want you to go to the crime-scene," Hotch pressed a hand to his forehead. This entire case was going nowhere, and he felt solely responsible. It was hard to say just how many of these deaths were the fault of the BAU. They just couldn't seem to stop them, "The most important thing that we can do at this point is try to establish where are victim is coming from. The victimology is scattered everywhere, except for these patterns,"

The patterns. They showed severe OCD. So far, this was one of the only things that they really knew about their unsub.

Each team member wore a rather grim expression on their face, not glancing up as Hotch sat back down. Reid was going over a stack of files in his lap, "None of this makes any sense," He shook his head, speaking half to himself and half to Derek, "There's nothing to show a personal connection to any of the victims, it's like he's just picking them because they fit into his criteria," Despite all of Reid's intellect, he was truly beginning to feel a little hopeless when it came to this case, like nothing that he could do would ever shed light on their unsub. It was pretty clear that the whole team felt this way, even Garcia in all her bright and cheery neon glory - speaking of which, she'd attended the debriefing on the latest victim but stayed in her precious hole in the wall to act as the off-site oracle, "It's as if he's just doing this to fit into some kind of routine, like killing isn't the point, but it's just a way to accomplish a set of tasks," Spencer shook his head and leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes, "What possible motive could he...?"

"Hey, kid..." A deep rumbling voice disturbed Reid's train of thought.

Spencer opened one eye and glanced at the agent across from him, "I know you're just doing what you do but, try not to think too hard, alright?" Derek gave a reassuring half smile as he adjusted in his seat, "You look tired, you should try to get a little rest before we land," Morgan encouraged, knowing that even a genius could be useless if they didn't get recharged at night.

But clearly, Reid was reluctant and the look on his face spelled it out clear as day, "I'll be fine, I just...haven't been sleeping very well lately," He pursed his lips and glanced downward, dragging his thermos to his mouth and taking another sip of that almost grainy-with-sugar coffee of his. Luke-warm. Spencer twitched his lip gently and set the container in the cupholder attached to his seat. It was in this moment that Derek seemed to notice the thermos even though Spencer had had it with him since he arrived at the office to meet with the rest of the team.

The thermos was a deep crimson color, embellished with nothing but a simple silver emblem on one side.

One of those little Star Trek symbols.

Derek cracked a smile and let out a laugh, "You're even worse than I thought, pretty boy," Morgan gestured to the cup, Spencer glanced down as if he'd forgotten what was on it and then he laughed gently, a little relief fluttering over his face. That was probably the first time that anyone had seen Spencer laugh or even smile for at least three months. It felt good to see the kid loosen up even a little bit.

"That one intern got it for me," Reid volunteered, glancing down at the cup again with a side-ways smile.

"Intern...?" Derek questioned, lifting his brow in confusion.

"Yeah...Nina, or Nona...or something like that," Spencer furrowed his brow, showing that even his memory wasn't perfect as he mentally searched for her name, "She's been here for about three months now. Her last name is French, but she was born and raised in America, so she doesn't have the accent," Spencer explained, her name still escaping him.

Derek's eyes flashed in recognition, "Nicolette?" Spencer nodded, the name was familiar enough that he recognized it, "Really now?" Morgan smirked, "Look's like our boy genius found himself a little fan, huh?" Derek's reaction caused Spencer to look down and away, the prodigy showing just a tiny portion of his insecurity.

"No, It's not like that...we just talk sometimes. We have a few things in common, that's all," Spencer attempted to reassure the other, but it was clear by the look on Derek's face that it just wasn't working.

"Yeah, sure, kid, that's how all relationships start out,"

Spencer found his face heating.

"But y'know, you've got good taste. She's pretty easy on the eyes," He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Derek was right of course though, Nicolette really was easy on the eyes, even if she wasn't quite Derek's type. Then again, it didn't quite seem fitting that Spencer was her type, ahh well. Who was Derek to judge?

Nicolette was the unassuming type. She didn't take up more attention than she needed to, and she was a very hard worker. Nicolette didn't even seem to mind it with Garcia had cheerfully begun calling her Niccy, or even Lettie-kins on rare occassions. The young woman had an even temper, and was quite mature beyond her age, though she was still playful enough on the inside to lightly joke around with Spencer about Star Trek. She was a good person, and Reid quite enjoyed her company, even though he didn't see very much of her.

But it was obvious that Derek wasn't referring to these traits when it came to Nicolette. Oh no no no, Mr. Derek Morgan was too caught up with her almost eeriely white skin, and the dark chestnut hair that seemed to glow with auburn undertones when she stepped out into the sunlight. Her eyes were an almost scary light blue, so light in fact that the irises nearly looked white - Spencer once explained that her eye-color was very rare and that it resulted from a less than average pigment count, but that it didn't effect vision. Funny that Derek managed to remember that. Regardless, this little Nicolette was also one of the very few girls that Derek had seen sporting deep red lipstick on daily occasions and managing to pull it off flawless - Morgan wasn't usually one for red lips, but the shade seemed to fit her flawlessly. Speaking of fitting flawlessly, he wouldn't mind testing a theory about their bodies fitting together perfectly. Even though Nicolette didn't wear revealing clothing at work, she wore clothes that showed her body off well without showing much skin. She was a classy girl, for her age, and she had this odd sort of timeless quality around her, accentuated by the string of pale blue pearls that she wore on her neck daily. When Derek asked about the necklace, she said that it had belonged to her grandmother. Aww, she was close to her family too. Well, that was certainly a plus.

Derek's brain swept him away into a memory concerning Nicolette from the day before and a sly smile crept across his face. Spencer gave a blink as a tiny realization seemed to hit him, "Don't tell me that you're after her already," He practically gaped. Derek always did move pretty fast. He lowered his voice and leaned forward in his chair, "It's inappropriate to be involved with co-workers like that," he chastised, sounding a little like an overly snitchy younger brother, "Besides, I thought that you said you didn't go for girls who worked with us,"

Morgan grinned and gave a low chuckle, "I said that I didn't go for other agents, or girls with guns," He corrected, "Little miss Nicolette happens to be an office intern," He shook his head then, "Listen man, if you want her, go for it. I'll keep my hands off,"

Spencer's face grew dark with color as he sunk back into his chair, "That's not what I meant..." He sighed out, not wanting to sound like he'd only been warning Derek because he wanted the girl for himself. Even if she was good company, Spencer couldn't seem to grow out of being intimidated by girls. He just couldn't help it. There was a small pause between them, and Derek frowned at the look on Spencer's face. He really didn't look the same. Something, Derek wasn't sure what it was, but something about Reid had changed lately.

Derek changed the entire mood of their conversation with one question, "Was it that nightmare again?" Reid looked up as if he wasn't sure what Morgan was referring to, "...The one with the baby?"

Spencer looked down and swallowed, eventually, he nodded, "Yeah..."

Morgan leaned forward and placed a hand on Spencer's shoulder in a brotherly manner, "I know you don't like talking about it, but remember, I'm always here if you need somewhat to listen, got that, Pretty boy?"

Spencer couldn't help but smile lightly, though his smile was cut short when he was caught up by a loud yawn, mouth stretching wide as he hunched his shoulders forward. Derek's hand slipped away as the older agent leaned back into his seat, and grabbing a handful of files. When Spencer was able to control his mouth again, he glanced back at Derek, "Thanks..." He said modestly, "I think...I'm going to take your advice on getting a little rest before we land," Reid admitted before pushing the arm-rest of the chair down and laying himself across the two cream-colored seats, Reid covered his eyes with his fore-arm. The youngest member of the team took a deep sigh, it really did feel good to just lay down. Spencer heard Derek chuckle softly, there was a rustle of fabric and it was obvious that the man had stood up - he was probably going to go review the case with the other agents, hopefully Hotch wouldn't mind Spencer catching some shut-eye before the real work began.

"Sleep tight, kid,"

Spencer remembered smiling just slightly before his mind was pulled away into a rich slumberland of nothing but dreamless sleep, but he couldn't quite recall if there had been a ruffle of his hair just before Derek Morgan walked away.  
**  


* * *

  
Author's Notes**; Wow, I really think I need to slow down and make sure that I actually know where this plot is going before it grows a mind of it's own ^^; Yes, no, maybe?


	5. Chapter 3

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; Not yet, not really.  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Procedural.  
**Rating**; PG-13.  
**Warnings**; Language, Graphic descriptions.  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Ooogh, sorry that this update took so long. I had some issues with my internet connection, that and I've been trying to concrete the case part of this story and make sure that everything fell into place well. Also...I bought the fourth season of Criminal Minds today, and holy hell, it is FANTASTIC! The image of Morgan sitting at the foot of Reid's bed and eating Jell-o...oh my god, I love it 3 Spencer is so fucking cute, I just wanna catch him in a cage and snuggle him to death w Read and Review, yes please!

* * *

_"Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime."_

_- Herbert Ward -  
_

* * *

"The first victim, Aileen Brown was found restrained behind a wall of wooden boards after her main arteries were cut. She bled to death,"

By this time, Spencer Reid was just barely waking. His ears perked at the sound of Hotch's voice as he ran over the details of the deaths of each and every victim.

"Cody Davis, the second victim was found tied to a chair in his own kitchen. The cause of death was diagnosed as blunt force trauma to the back of the head. The coroner suspects that the handle of a butter-knife was used judging by the size of the bruises on the back of the skull,"

Victim after victim was discussed, and Reid only remained relatively motionless on the seat, laying sideways. The young genius knew that Hotch probably wasn't happy with him napping on the job, but he also assumed that Morgan had given the unit chief a good reason to Spencer's nodding off. He really could count on Derek for anything, couldn't he? It sure seemed that way, and it definitely always had.

"Emma Flores. She was discovered in a refridgerator that had been chained shut. She died from hypothermia,"

Spencer's eyes were closed, but they were fluttering behind his shut lids as he re-absorbed the details of the case. None of this made any sense. The only connection between these victims continued to be the obsessive patterns that drew them together. The names. The alternating sex of the victims. The ages. The dates that they were found - one at the beginning of each month.

However, something didn't fit...

Why would someone so obsessively OCD choose a pattern that would have to start itself over, while the other patterns didn't repeat themselves but only continued?

That's what Spencer didn't understand. It just didn't fit. There was something important about this detail, but even Reid couldn't seem to uncover it.

"Our eleventh victim was Una Vincent, found in the back of a semi-truck. Cause of death, drowning..." Hotch's voice faltered, the unit-chief was obviously running out of his well-preserved steam, "Her lungs had been filled with cough-syrup, through a tube that had been forced into her throat," Reid could almost feel the team cringing.

These deaths had certainly been some of the most grusome that the team had ever encountered, however, it didn't make sense that the unsub continuously changed MO's. Usually, after a while of working on a case, Reid managed to have a sort of 'aha' moment, but this time, it just wasn't happening. It concerned Spencer. Was he loosing his touch? Something was effecting him, and something was lowering his efficiency, for some reason or another, he wasn't as good at his job as he used to be. It was bothering him, but who could he talk to about it? No one on the team, he didn't want them to lose faith in him, like he was loosing it in himself.

Then again, who was to say that they weren't already loosing belief in him?

_C'mon Spencer, don't think like this. _

Letting out a low drawn out sigh, he slowly adjusted himself, sitting himself upright and allowing his feet to settle against the ground. He had to get a hold of himself. They'd had tough cases before, this was no reason to start doubting himself. He was good at his job, and so was the rest of the team. They'd catch this unsub, one way or another.

"And finally...Evan Foster is the latest victim, found in a day-care center, asphyxiated by tongue depressors,"

The entire team's eyes seemed to flutter over into the same direction as a smirk came over Derek's face, a charming smile attacking his features, "Morning, Sunshine," he greeted, eyes soaking in the sight of a clearly exhausted Spencer swaying in place and grasping onto the nearest chair as he made his way to the rest of the group. Derek supressed a gentle snort, as did the rest of the team as they laid eyes on the mess of hair that inhabited Reid's knowledge-filled head. Tendrils of silken brown hair were swooping up in different and quite honestly rather comical ways, not that Spencer really paid much mind, since of course, he couldn't see his own hair.

Reid rubbed the back of one hand across an eye, letting out a stiffled yawn. It seemed that it was Emily's turn to take a shot, she smiled gently with a laugh as she ran over a stack of papers in her hand, "You don't make a very good Sleeping Beauty, Reid, you make a better agent," She jested before turning her eyes back down. Reid smiled sleepily and collapsed into the seat next to Morgan.

"Are we almost there?" Spencer questioned, glancing around Derek's body to take a look out of the small window, watching momentarily as the world passed them by.

Derek turned his eyes onto Spencer and lifted a hand up, he patted down the wayward strands of hair, earning a little smile from the genius, "Yeah, kid, we should be a few more minutes," Morgan responded, drawing his hand back and relaxing against the seat, "You feelin' any better?"

Reid let a smile creep across his face, and he nodded, running a hand from his forehead to the back of his head, "Yeah...I guess that I've been a little more worn-out than I thought I was," He admitted, "This case has really taken a lot out of me, you know?"

Derek nodded in agreement, "Hey, it's been hard on all of us. Just don't stress yourself out too much, remember...you're not a computer, pretty boy," Morgan teased, but Spencer knew that he had good intentions. Derek had always looked out for him, like a big brother, or something of the sort, "You gotta rest once in a while,"

Spencer glanced over at the other members of the team before addressing Derek again, "Did we just go over the victim list again...? Was there anything else that anyone caught?" He questioned.

"No, not yet. We can't seem to dig up anything new on this guy," Derek shook his head with a sigh, "Whoever he is, he's damned good at what he's doing. He's probably been at this for years, just working up to pulling this string of murders off,"

Spencer reluctantly nodded. Derek was right. This unsub was no amateur.

Reid grabbed a stack of files that vividly described each death. He ran over the list quickly, once, and then again. There was something unusual, something that was trying to tell him something and he just knew it. Derek seemed to sense how absorbed Spencer had suddenly got, so he leaned back and waited for the plane to begin landing preparations. Spencer's mind churned over the information in his hands.

Forth victim, Gabriel Harris, asphyxiated by a bar of soap.

Fifth victim, Isa Johnson, blood-loss caused by excessive lacerations created by a wire-hanger.

"Wait...that's it..."

Sixth victim, Kevin Long, starvation, found restrained under his bed covers.

Seventh victim, Mia Nelson, overdosed on sleeping medication, found behind a dentist's office in a dumpster.

Derek's ears perked at the sound of Spencer's mumbles, "His method isn't random; every location, every cause of death," Reid turned his attention onto the older agent, his hand shooting out and catching onto Derek's shoulder, "Children," Derek cocked a brow up in confusion, "All of these COD's, they're common fears that children have, and the locations, almost all of them have something to do with kids; the dentist office, the day-care, the candy store," Reid continued to rattle on, looking a little excited that they'd finally figured something out. While it may not have seemed like a large detail, all of them knew that it would help in constructing a better profile. The rest of the team had already flocked towards Reid and Morgan, listening in on Spencer's epiphany.

Prentiss threw her own two cents in, "So we're dealing with someone stuck in his own child-hood then?"

"Or someone who resents the idea of growing up," Derek interjected as the brainstorming through the group continued.

"It fits with the fact that he hasn't killed anyone under the age of eighteen - the time when one legally becomes an adult," Spencer paused to process what had just been said, "He wants his victims to relive their childhood, probably because of painful experiences in his own. Because all of the deaths focus on punishments directed towards children, we should look into cases of child-abuse...though it's extremely likely that his own parents were never turned in for it,"

Hotch sunk into one of the seats after glancing out of the window, "We're about to land, after everyone gets as much information as we can, we'll meet up at the local station and go over the profile again," There was a strange sort of hush that fell through the jet as it began to lower itself, eventually coming lower and lower to the ground.

"So...it's just another case of the abused becoming the abuser then?" Derek inquired, glancing over in Spencer's direction.

"It sounds that way," The genius replied and dipped his head gently, the sound of the jet's motor mulling through his ears.

"Damn,"

That one little sigh from Derek Morgan said it all, and Spencer knew it. All of them were sick of cases like this, the sort of cases where evil just seemed to breed itself over and over. When would society learn that you're only creating another Ted Bundy, another Ed Gein, and another Jeffery Dalmer when you brought your own children pain? No, serial killers would never stop being born into this world, but there were ways to decrease how many of them eventually tortured, brutalized, and killed other people. Even someone as genius as Spencer Reid knew no way to end all evil in the world.

* * *

**Author's Notes**; So this chapter is really dry, and I'm super sorry for that. I just wanted to apologize for taking so long to update, and I really wanted to get another chapter in today. Hopefully I'll be able to update with a better and juicier chapter by tomorrow or within the next few days.


	6. Reference Victim List 2

Victims list, so far...Updated for your convenience...and mine.

**Author's notes**; This is strictly for reference. I've been working hard, you see? And I'm quite proud of how this is coming together so far, watch...Now I'm gonna find out that I've made a mistake somewhere. Oh well.

Here is the format to the list, so you understand a bit more.  
[[ Name ]] [[ Sex ]] [[ Age ]] [[ Month of Death ]]  
Cause of Death;  
Location of Body;  
Ta-dah, easy, yes? I sure hope so. This will probably be the last update to this list, but I'm not sure yet ^^; Hah. If you notice any glaring mistakes, please let me know, yes? Please and thank you! 3

* * *

[[ Aileen Brown ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Eighteen ]] [[ January ]]  
Cause of Death; Major arteries cut, by x-acto knife.  
Location of Body; Restrained into a corner, by wooden boards that had been nailed into the adjacent walls.

[[ Cole Davis ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty ]] [[ February ]]  
Cause of Death; Blunt force trauma, butter knife handle repeatedly swung into the back of the head.  
Location of Body; Found tied to a kitchen chair, found floating in the pool of an apartment complex.

[[ Emma Flores ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-two ]] [[ March ]]  
Cause of Death; Hypothermia, and possible claustrophobia, resulting in panic attack.  
Location of Body; Locked in a full-sized refridgerator that had been chained shut.

[[ Gabriel ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-four ]] [[ April ]]  
Cause of Death; Asphyxiated by a bar of soap.  
Location of Body; In the backseat of an abandoned car that was found down an alley-way.

[[ Isa Johnson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-six ]] [[ May ]]  
Cause of Death; Blood loss, lacerations across back caused by a wire-hanger  
Location of Body; Found in a changing room in a department store.

[[ Kevin Long ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-eight ]] [[ June ]]  
Cause of Death; Starvation.  
Location of Body; Paralyzed by drugs, he was found restrained in a bed, neatly tucked under the covers.

[[ Mia Nelson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty ]] [[ July ]]  
Cause of Death; Overdose of sleeping medication.  
Location of Body; Found in the dumpster behind a dentist office.

[[ Owen Price ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-two ]] [[ August ]]  
Cause of Death; Drowned while unconscious.  
Location of Body; Found under a parked car behind a post-office.

[[ Quinta Rodriguez ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-four ]] [[ September ]]  
Cause of Death; Buried alive beneath hundreds of muddy shoes.  
Location of Body; Found in a seven foot deep pit in a parking garage.

[[ Sean Taylor ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-six ]] [[ October ]]  
Cause of Death; Hung upside down by his feet, with leather belts.  
Location of Body; Discovered in a sewer.

[[ Una Vincent ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-eight ]] [[ November ]]  
Cause of Death; Lungs filled with cough-syrup.  
Location of Body; Found in the back of a semi-truck.

[[ Wesley Xander ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty ]] [[ December ]]  
Cause of Death; Blood loss. Blood was drawn with hundreds of individual needles.  
Location of Body; Found in an alley, behind a candy-store.

[[ Yvonne Ziegler ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-two ]] [[ January ]]  
Cause of Death; Drowned in a local river.  
Location of Body; Discovered in a popular restaurant's freezer.

[[ Anthony Barnes ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-four ]] [[ February ]]  
Cause of Death; Severe head injuries. Cranium slammed repeatedly against a counter.  
Location of Body; Found in the principal's office of an elementary school.

[[ Claire Diaz ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-six ]] [[ March ]]  
Cause of Death; Pneumonia.  
Location of Body; Found beneath a child's bed.

[[ Evan Foster ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-eight ]] [[ April ]]  
Cause of Death; Asphyxiated with a dozen and a half tongue-depressors.  
Location of Body; Found under a desk at a day-care center.

* * *

Victim number seventeen? Soon to come?


	7. Chapter 4

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; Sorry everyone. Bare with me, yes?  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Procedural.  
**Rating**; PG-13  
**Warnings**; Graphic descriptions.  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Here, I want to take the chance to thank _Rayne McKenna__, PinkHimeLacus_, and_ KeepBreathing3 _for being with me from the very beginning of this story. Of course, I also thank all of my other readers and especially those who have been leaving reviews. Your guys' thoughts and opinions and reactions all mean the world to me! Thank you for reading! Read and Review, please!

* * *

_"__He's got no fear. He'll stand his ground at the blue line all day. We need more guys like that."_

_- Ron Wilson -_

* * *

"There's been no one here to touch the scene other than the local authorities, right?"

Spencer Reid confirmed this information as he slid a pair of blue latex gloves over his fingers, after adjusting his watch. He didn't know why, but he couldn't stand the feel of a watch or bracelet or some other form of jewelry across his wrists, fingers, or necklace. He read once that_ 'gifted' _people such as him were extremely sensitive to external stimuli, but he preferred to call it a personal quirk. He'd never liked thinking of himself as a _'genius,' _besides...what was a genius anyway?

"That's right, it's just been me, and my boys," the local sheriff replied quickly as he adjusted the hat on his head.

The sun was beginning to come up by the time that agents Morgan, Rossi, and the affirmed Dr. Reid had arrived on the scene. It was needless to say that the day-care center had been closed. Sunny Oaks Day-Care. It would take quite a while for the little old owner to get a hold on things again. Mrs. Henny was her name, or at least Reid thought that was her name. Henny, Penny, Jenny. Something like that, he couldn't be quite sure. But regardless of whatever her name was, she was in for a rough time after a body had been discovered by her when she went back to the building because she'd forgotten an important file of papers.

Rossi had pulled her to the side of the bright red brick colored building. He wasn't the best at comforting people, despite his years of work, but he was trying. It probably would have been better if Prentiss had been there, she was much more delicate with careful matters like these after all. Still though, Rossi was getting the job done and was running through a list of memorized questions; asking her what was so important for her to come get, if there was anything unusual about that night, if she recognized the corpse, if she'd had any disgruntled customers as of late, or knew anyone who was unusually angry. The little old lady only clutched at the pendant on her chest, shaking her head at every question that Rossi dished out. The half Italian agent did his best to keep his cool, knowing that it would do no good to upset her. She was upset enough.

While Dave dealt with the owner, it was up to Derek and Spencer to investigate the scene itself.

They stepped into the main lobby of the day-care, towards the receptionist's desk, the sheriff was right at their heels. Sheriff Duncan stepped around the boys and stared dryly at the disformed corpse, "The coroner should be on their way, they'll be able to give a proper diagnosis of the actual cause of death,"

Reid frowned and pushed the chair out of the way, making sure not to disturb the body, "It's easy enough to see exactly what the cause of death was," He pointed with a blue finger, "There wouldn't be bruising like this if the...popsicle sticks hadn't been placed there post mortem," Reid could hear Morgan give an uncomfortably audible swallow from behind him, "He was alive when the unsub forced these into his throat," Reid informed, continuing to stare over the body, "He obviously goes to the gym, based on this muscle definition, meaning our unsub isn't physically disadvantaged. This isn't the work of a woman." Spencer continued to work the details out before he turned back to the rather overweight sheriff, "He's not married either, Has the family been contacted yet?"

Sheriff Duncan's face turned into a deep frown, "Poor guy never had much of a family, he's been here all his life - used to be a friend of my son's," Reid tucked that little tidbit into the back of his brain for later, "Evan here lost his parents when he was a kid, was raised by his older sister..." Sheriff Duncan fell into a brief history of Evan Foster as Morgan turned his attention elsewhere, to the rest of the room.

The darker agent took even steps throughout the small and tidy lobby. Interesting. Small, and tidy. There were no signs of a struggle, nothing seemed to be out of place. He'd have to ask, but he was fairly sure that if he asked Mrs. Henny if anything was moved from where it usually was, that it would all be in it's proper place. Morgan strode over to the front of the building, he examined the door, "No sign of forced entry," He turned and looked back into the lobby, there was a tiny desk next to the door, and on that desk layed a key. Derek plucked the key up from it's spot, "Hey sheriff," Derek interupted with a hollar, "Did Mrs. Henny say anything about forgetting a key behind?"

The sheriff glanced up and Reid continued to examine the body and it's close surroundings. Evan Foster was fourty-eight years old. He wasn't married, and didn't appear to have any family at all. An exam of Mr. Foster's wallet held no pictures whatsoever, not even of anyone who appeared to be his sister. The sheriff strode over to Mrs. Henny, "No...that can't be hers," He informed, "She said she put everything she had back into her purse when she came outside and called us. When she stood up after I arrived, her keys fell out of her purse,"

Derek furrowed his brow and twisted the key between his fingers, "Which means that our guy either knew Mrs. Henny, or has been watching her long enough to make a copy of her key,"

Spencer felt himself swallow, "So our unsub is connected to Mrs. Henny somehow, she might not even know it yet," He glanced back at the brown-haired and blue-faced corpse of Evan Foster, "But how is Evan Foster connected to the two of them? Our unsub definitely wouldn't have dumped the body here for convenience," Reid analyzed, placing a finger on his chin as he thought it out.

"Which means?" The sheriff urged mildly.

Derek took over, "That this was personal. The unsub has got to know both Mrs. Henny and Mr. Foster, or at the very least, Evan's got to know Mrs. Henny..." Derek paused, "Unless..." A lightbulb seemed to be instantaneously shared between Morgan and Reid at that moment.

"Sheriff...is there a Mr. Henny?" Reid ventured.

"Hmm?" The sheriff questioned, "Yeah...there is, but he's been in the hospital recovering from a knee injury," The elderly man mulled over the information, "This can't really have anything to do with him, can it? Wouldn't they just go after Paul if they had a grudge against him? Why pull his wife into it?"

Derek stepped through the lobby once more, examining the windows, "It's leverage. There's no better way to torment someone than to torture someone important to them that they have no way to help right away," He brushed a finger over the seal of the glass, "Evan Foster could have upset our unsub somehow, and since he has no family, maybe they go after the closest thing that he has to one, which sounds like Mr. Henny. But the Mr. is tucked safely in a hospital with tight security measures, and the Mrs. is out here in the open where anyone can get to her. With something happening to her while he's vulnerable, he can't save her," Morgan informed, "It puts him at the greatest disadvantage, and our unsub at the greatest advantage,"

The sheriff nodded affirmatively. It definitely made sense to him, "I'm going to give Mr. Henny a call, he has the right to know that his wife's alright," He stepped from the lobby, "You let me know if you find anything important, alright?" With his next breath, the sheriff was gone and it was just Morgan and Reid in the lobby, with a corpse. Spencer eyed the body again and placed a hand around his own throat.

At that moment, Morgan chimed up again, "They're lucky that she drove back last night. It's a damned good thing that no kids were exposed to this,"

Reid agreed with a short nod, "But it would have been better if no one had to be exposed to something like this,"

Derek offered a sigh and shook his head, watching as Reid knelt down by the body, "You know, we'd be out of a job if that ever happened,"

Spencer lifted his head and looked Derek in the eye, "You'd rather have a job than have suffering diminished?"

"C'mon kid, You know I didn't mean it like that,"

Reid blinked once and lowered his head, lifting the foot of the corpse with one foot and turning it slightly. It wasn't wearing shoes, and there was an index card with an uroboros stamped on it. The card was taped to the heel of the left foot. Reid narrowed his eyes, "Then how did you mean it?" he examined the foot silently, eyeing the artifact in his grip.

Morgan stepped over to Spencer's side and kneeled down next to him, "This kind of stuff has always been happening, it's just how people are...and we just happen to be the sort of people made to lock them up," Spencer nodded in understanding, "Hey, Pretty boy, if you weren't in the BAU, what do you think you'd be doing?" His question was surprisingly sincere and wasn't at all a joke.

Spencer looked up and frowned, "I don't really know. I've never thought about it before," He shrugged his shoulders softly, "What about you?" He questioned, honestly interested.

Derek shrugged, and glanced down at the card taped to the bottom of Evan Foster's foot, "I'd probably still be a cop back in Chicago," He noted, "The family'd be happy about it," He cracked a gentle smile at the idea of living near his family again. His mother, and two older sisters. He really did miss them. However, it was in that moment, that Derek glanced over and saw the frown on Spencer's face. Spencer wasn't the type to wear his emotions on his sleeves, in fact, Reid was the type to hide from his emotions, often smothering them in endless facts and statistics. So then, what was that look for?

Trying to avoid an even heavier situation (given the circumstances) Morgan gave Reid a little nudge with the edge of his elbow, "What's up, kid? Would you really miss me that bad if I moved back home?"

Spencer swayed in his spot from the nudge and gave a quick blink, "Ah, no - uhh...that's not it," he cleared his throat, "It's this..." He pointed at the uroboros stamp, "The uroboros stands for something that continuously re-creates itself," He clarified, "Something that eternally returns," Spencer furrowed his brows and pursed his lips together, "This would make sense if the murders were all the same, but the only thing constant between them is their differences, and this signature," He gingerly laid the foot back down, "I think..." He shook his head, "I think that this signature doesn't have a second meaning to it, I think that's it's only here so that we know the murders are connected. He wants us to know what he's doing, and he wants us to follow him. He doesn't want us to get distracted by other cases," Spencer locked eyes with Derek, "Do you ever get the feeling that they're just leading us on a wild goose chase?"

Derek nodded, "With every case, kid,"

"No, but...I mean...this feels different than that," Spencer almost couldn't seem to grasp what he was saying, "It's almost like he knows what we're looking for, and he's purposely giving us just the right things to lead us in nothing but circles,"

It was at this very moment just when suspicions and tensions seemed to be peaking, that Spencer felt something tickle across the back of his hand. Spencer's features shifted momentarily, his brows knitted together and he turned his head downward, his eyes fell onto the back of his hand and he practically bit his own tongue off.

There on the plane of his hand rested a single brown spider. Ohhh, but not just any brown spider.

Approximately an inch long.

Only three pairs of eyes, instead of four.

Finally, there was a dark brown violin shaped spot on it's cephalothorax.

Spencer's brain instantly identified the spider as a brown recluse, otherwise known as a violin spider, the distant but extremely deadly cousin to the more glamorous black widow spider.

In panic, Spencer jerked his hand away from the corpse of Evan Foster and snapped his wrist away from him. Successfully, he'd managed to send the eight legged beast away from him and across the room. Though really, he could have thought of a better way to deal with it. Unfortunately though, through all of his panic, and that little yelp that escaped him, he'd managed to loose his balance. Now, normally, this temporary loss of balance wouldn't be so terrible, however, this time, he'd managed to fling himself directly into FBI agent Derek Morgan. Not only that, but there'd been enough for fueled by Spencer's adrenaline to throw the two of them onto the floor.

Morgan landed on his back, with Spencer sprawled directly on top of him. The genius' head was tucked neatly under Derek's chin, and he was cradled instantly by the mass of muscle which was Morgan. Spencer's chest heaved in panic, eyes dilated as he watched the little brown spot on the ground. However, Derek only laughed, "Afraid of a little bug, pretty boy?" He couldn't even attempt to contain his laughter.

Spencer on the other hand, continued to heave, panic raising his voice by at least a full octave, "Do you have any idea how poisonous those are?"

It was at that moment, that the sheriff entered the lobby again, opening the door and conveniently stepping squarely on that little bug with the heel of his boot, "Uhhm...agents...?" Sheriff Duncan cleared his throat and gave the men a moment to collect themselves (though Spencer's face only flushed in embarrassed misery, "The coroner's here, he'd like a little time to examine the body where it rests, if you don't mind,"

Both Morgan and Spencer clambered to their feet; Derek looked far from effected, however, Spencer was nervously clearing his throat and straightening out his clothes while the two of them left the lobby. Reid practically drowned Derek with a plethora of facts on the brown recluse spider, as if justifying his panic. Derek only continued to laugh, wiggling his brows over at the genius with a smug reply of, "Right, kid, we all know you just wanted to get your hands on me," He grinned and offered a playful wink. He really did have the best of intentions.

Penelope would never stop teasing her little boy genius if Derek ever told her.

No, wait, not _if_...when. _When _he told her.

* * *

**Author's Notes**; Here's another chapter for all of you, I hope that this one is more entertaining than the last. I really need to focus on making my chapters longer, they're so short T_T Anyway, yeah...spiders are scary, especially when you know how toxic their venom is =_=; Reid's too smart for his own good. C'mon, who expected a recluse to come out of a dead body? Right? _;; I gave myself the shivers when I looked up their identification tricks *Shudder*


	8. Chapter 5

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; If you've been following this story, you know where this is going [/Wink]  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Procedural, The Usual.  
**Rating**; PG-13  
**Warnings**; Actually...there isn't really any bad stuff in this one o.O; Sorry guys...  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Phew, you guys have NO IDEA how much of my life this story is taking up _; I was up until two in the morning roughing out the story chapter by chapter =_=; And thus far, I have a total of eleven chapters planned...and I'm not done either .; I really didn't think that this story was going to be so long, but I'm not really complaining. Hahaa.

Also, I am making oatmeal cookies! HUZZAH! *MunchMunch* D And the uncooked dough is utterly orgasmic *_*

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_"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."__- Frank Herbert -  
_

* * *

"So do you guys have any idea what sort of person we're looking for yet?"

They were at the police station, it was filled with overworked, overwhelmed, and overheated officers, all complaining and griping about how little the BAU really seemed to be doing. The man who had just spoken up was one of the new deputies, and if you asked Spencer, he'd already forgotten his name. The rest of the officers all lifted their tired heads, turning their eyes onto Hotch, waiting for an answer, or more precisely, waiting for a solution.

Unit chief Aaron Hotchner was more than ready to deliver.

"The person that we're looking for is a white male, likely in late twenties or early thirties," While the constantly changing ages of the victims threw them off a bit, they had come to the conclusion that since no one under the age of eighteen was killed, it was likely that this person identified as an adult, though other clues hinted to a more immature style of thinking - which was why they lowered the expected age, "This man has an above average intelligence, and is likely to show that off. He's proud of how much he knows, and he's probably proud of where he obtained his intelligence, I advise you to look into the more prestigious schools around the area. He's very proud of his work, and he's arrogant, constantly showing off what he's been working on until he gets what he feels is the right amount of respect. We deduced this from the fact that he's left a very clear signature at each and every scene. He isn't the type of person to sit back and let anyone else take credit for what he's done," Aaron cleared his throat before continuing, "He has an impeccable sense of attention to detail, so we may be looking for someone who's job has to do with using their hands frequently; think of anyone who's career relies on fine motor skills; mechanics, plumbers, electricians and so on,"

Hotch paused a moment, and Reid decided to step in, clearing his throat.

"There have been no sexual components in any of these murders, he's also shown no signs of remorse, meaning that we're dealing with a sociopath," Spencer's fingers tapped together in that odd way that he was often seen doing, "Every murder also falls into a pattern of how they've been done, each murder and location is linked to children. The methods of killing are popular ways to punish children; the bar of soap found in Gabriel Harris' throat, and the way that Aileen brown was restrained into a corner," The young brown haired genius continued to explain, "We can conclude that our unsub was likely abused as a child, and that he works near children - he also will not hurt children, unless he is threatened in a way that makes him feel cornered. Children are not his target, instead, he seems to be wanting to remind adults that they are just as vulnerable as children are," There was an uncomfortable silence sinking through the room, but Spencer swallowed and ignored it, "He's also been following an alphabetical pattern with the names, along with patterns in ages, and genders. This shows that our unsub is extremely OCD,"

Morgan then took his own turn, "While it's not uncommon for anyone to show some sign of obsessive compulsive disorder, this level would interfere with his every day life. He'd have ticks, likely with numbers that he'd do almost constantly; the amount of times that he opens a door, the amount of steps that he takes, he might tap his fingers in a certain order on a desk, he'd also show extreme aggrevation when things are uneven and he can't change them, he might even change the time on a digital clock to keep it from showing a particular order of numbers," Derek backed down and leaned against the nearby wall, turning a small glance onto Spencer. The kid really did look exhausted, he didn't seem like himself at all.

"We'd like to have a few more days to further question the victim's family along with investigating nearby universities, and mental hospitals, before we release this profile to the public. If any of you have any further questions or concerns, I will be available to call at any time, along with the rest of my team,"

With that said, the officers slowly began to leak out of the room, with some of them giving cynical stares back at the BAU. It was pretty clear that there was a large portion of cops in that room who didn't believe that profiling could help. It was also clear though, that the BAU was already helping out more than the local authorities ever could have imagined.

Hotch took a look at the clock, it was getting late.

"We'll be heading to the hotel, we've already got rooms set up. J.J. and Prentiss, Morgan and Reid, and Rossi and myself," Hotch then addressed the blond agent, "J.J, I want you to set up a press conference tomorrow, we'll release a statement that this murder is connected to the others, but I don't want to give the entire profile until we've had a chance to cover more victimology," he cleared this up as he tugged a stack of files from the desk, "But there's nothing else for us to do right now, we'll get started early tomorrow morning,"

It was shortly after that that the team began to dissapate, taking their separate SUVs to the nearby hotel. Luckily, the drive wasn't very long, because if it was, Reid would have chatted Morgan's ear off with his little history speech concerning the invention and distribution of billboards.

By the time that they'd arrived at the hotel room, Morgan's brain had decided that it had had quite enough of this case for one day. If he didn't get his mind off of it, he'd end up driving himself crazy. Shifting the car into park, Morgan slid the keys out of the ignition and turned his attention onto Reid, "Hey, kid, you hungry?" Spencer glanced over, but before he could open his mouth to give a proper answer, his stomach let out an instinctive growl at the mention of food. Morgan laughed and shook his head, "I'll take that as a yes," Morgan gave a sideways grin as he slid out of the vehicle.

After checking in at the front desk, the two of them headed up the stairs and into the hallway, searching for their room. Once they got inside, Reid undid his jacket and draped it on the back of the chair that was tucked under a desk that was placed in the far corner. Letting out a loud yawn, Spencer covered his mouth and ran his hand through his hair, "You really are worn out, huh, pretty boy?"

Spencer glanced over, "Well...yeah..." He affirmed as he turned and took a seat in the chair, glancing over at the bed that was placed against the wall, "You can't tell me that you never had your bad days," Reid protested before he noticed something.

Wait.

Bed.

As in singlular, as in...not plural.

One bed.

One double sized bed.

For a moment, Reid only parted his lips and stared. Usually, when they had to share hotel rooms, there had been an effort to get two beds in each room. Mind you, it wasn't all that terrible, at least they had a proper number of team-mates to make sure that only men and women roomed with one another, but still...Spencer wasn't used to sleeping in a bed with a body next to him. However, was the way that his throat went so dry really normal? Spencer couldn't be sure. He shook his head and focused his attention back onto Morgan. Derek didn't seem taken aback by the fact that there was only one bed. Well, if it really bothered either of them, one of them could take the floor, right?

"Something wrong?" Derek questioned, one dark brow risen up in confusion, attention drawn away from the menu held in his hands.

Spencer blinked, "Oh...no, it's nothing," With that, the issue was dismissed, or at least, it should have been. Derek handed the menu over to Spencer, letting the genius chose what he wanted. Spencer's eyes ran over the laminated paper, "It's just that...there's only one bed,"

Morgan looked up, "Yeah..." Derek eyed the bed and then eyed Reid again, taking in the tiny signs of Spencer's body language. The kid was nervous, "If it makes you uncomfortable, I can take the floor. I don't mind," Derek offered.

Surprisingly enough, Spencer protested, "No, it's alright," He looked up, fingers tapping against the edge of the menu, "It's just that...I've never really shared a bed with anyone before, and my mom always told me that I move a lot in my sleep," Spencer informed, "I just don't want to keep you up all night,"

Morgan gave a thin smile, "Believe me, you'll know if you keep me up all night, pretty boy," Derek threw one of those cocky (but not annoyingly so) smirks over in Spencer's direction, "Know what you want yet?" Morgan looked at the menu held between Reid's long fingers. Spencer gave a nod, set the menu down said that he'd just have a burger and fries - Reid normally didn't eat like this, but it was the first thing that his eyes had landed on, not to mention the fact that just about everything sounded appetizing to Reid's empty stomach at that point.

Picking up the phone, Morgan ordered room service for the two of them, and Reid had decided to go over the files again. When Morgan hung up the phone, he slumped down into the spaciously laid out bed and picked up the remote to the TV, with the press of a button, the device came to life. Morgan sighed, "Hey, Reid, why don't you put those away and relax at least a little bit?" Reid turned his eyes up, as if wanting to protest, "We'll have plenty of time tomorrow to go over those again," Spencer knew that Derek was just looking out for him, he was worried that Reid was going to burn himself out. Truth be told, Reid was surprised that he hadn't managed to do that already.

"I was just trying to... - "

But Reid was promptly interrupted with a tsking noise from Morgan's direction, "I said relax..." he repeated, "If you never give that big brain of yours a rest, you're going to burn it out,"

Reid frowned, "Morgan, that's not physically possible,"

Morgan laughed and shook his head, "C'mon, just come chill out and then we can head to bed," He urged, hitting the side of the bed next to him with his palm for emphasis. Reid sighed and gave in, standing up and sinking into the bed next to Morgan. The bed was large and neither of the men took up too much space, so there was approximately a foot and a half between them. Reid settled down and tucked a chunk of hair behind his ear, his ankles crossed in front of him. Morgan was flipping through the channels, but nothing particularly interesting was on, so he eventually settled on the news.

Several minutes ticked by, until Reid was no longer able to stay quiet. Eventually, he let a question that had been nagging him rise to the surface, despite Derek telling him not to worry about this case until tomorrow.

"Do you think that we'll ever catch this unsub?" The question was abrupt, but it made sense. Still though, Morgan looked over and pinched his brows together, he'd never heard of Reid ever being so unsure of himself, "I mean...it's not that I don't think that we can't solve it, it's just that with the victimology so over the place and the only patterns that we have, they all seem so insignificant. The chances of us actually finding him are dangerously close to one in... - "

Reid was suddenly cut off in his questioning as Morgan rolled onto his side to face him.

No, Derek didn't cut Spencer off with words this time, instead, Reid had found himself physically unable to continue in his worry. Derek Morgan's index finger was currently pushed against Spencer's lips in a hushing gesture. Spencer swallowed, lips very slightly parted against Morgan's finger as the young genius just stared up at the other agent, completely caught off guard by the motion, and that look on Derek's face; it was stern, but comforting at the same time.

How odd.

"What did I say, pretty boy?" Derek gave a sigh, not once making a motion to move his hand away from Spencer's mouth, "You're worrying too much, kid," He reinforced, "We'll find this unsub, even if it takes another twenty years. We'll get him put away, and he won't be able to hurt anyone else. I know that all of us can do this, especially with you on our side," He reassured the other, pulling his hand away, "Don't you forget that,"

Spencer swallowed hard, trying to force his heart back down into his chest.

It was funny actually, the way that Reid's eyes had widened in surprise, he looked almost like a deer in the head-lights. Spencer had gone so still, that Derek could have sworn that the kid stopped breathing. Actually, He had been holding his breath, but even Reid hadn't noticed that until he let out a sigh when Morgan settled back down against the bed.

Reid's brain tried to cobble together a response, but as soon as he parted his lips, there was a knock and a hollar at the door, "Room service!" Spencer shut his mouth and sat up, but Derek was already half way to the door. Opening the door to the hotel room up, he thanked the worker and pulled the food inside. He set his own covered plate on the desk and walked back over to the bed to hand Spencer his own plate.

Spencer gave a gentle, "Thanks," Before the two of them settled back onto the bed to stuff their faces, and fill their bellies. The whole while that they ate, Spencer was surprisingly quiet, choosing not to inform Derek as to why a hamburger was called a hamburger even though it wasn't made of pig - he actually thought that he'd already explained the name's origin before, but he couldn't be sure. Regardless, his stomach gladly thanked every known god for the fact that it was now being filled up. He really had been neglecting his health because of his case, well...more than usual, at any rate, and it most certainly showed in the circles under his eyes that were abnormally dark, even for Reid.

Eventually, both of their plates were emptied and Derek sat them on the desk, covering them up again with their lid before he walked back around the bed and turned the TV off, "I don't know about you, but I'm hitting the sack," Derek noted, reaching into his nightbag and grabbing some dark blue cotton pajama pants. Usually, he made a habit of sleeping in nothing more than boxers, if even that, but when sharing a room (and in this case, a bed) with Reid, he did the kid a favor of wearing a pair of full lengthed pajama pants. Derek headed to the bathroom to change, and Spencer took this time to do the same. Not surprisingly, Spencer's pajama clothes were stamped with well-known quotes and phrases from Star Wars. But unlike Derek, Reid was the type to sleep with a shirt on, he never liked the odds of a fire starting up while he slept, and if he did run outside, he'd rather not be in the nude.

By the time that Derek stepped out of the bathroom, Spencer was already tucked underneath the covers and rolled onto his side, facing away from the bed. The sheets were tugged up under Reid's chin, and the kid's hair was sprawled across the pillow. From the way that the blankets were bunched together, Derek could tell that Spencer was curled up into a ball. Morgan smiled slightly at the thought that Reid really was more of a kid than an adult. Go figure that one of their best agents was just as innocent as a child.

Knowing that Reid couldn't be completely zonked out in just that short time, Derek crawled in on the other side of the bed, "Night, pretty boy," He said lightly before clicking the light off.

As the room was encased in darkness, there was a muffled and rather drowsy reply from the genius at the other side of the bed, "G'night...Morgan,"

Unfortunately for Reid, he was in for anything but a good night of sleep.

It wasn't long after the two of them had begun to nod off that unpleasant thoughts began to creep into the back of Reid's mind. There were flashes. Pictures and frames that lasted maybe a few seconds each at the most. Small snippets of memory combined with fear passed before his closed eyes. It was no surprise that Reid's brain was enveloped by worries concerning this case.

"N - No..." Reid's hands were clutched into the sheets curled around him, his knuckles turning white, "D...Don't touch him..." Spencer's chest was quivering, his hairline was dotted with cold sweat and his eyes were squeezed shut tight. His breath was fluttering from fear and adrenaline as he rolled to his other side, unconsciously facing Derek as the web of his dream, his nightmare became all the more violent and terrifying, "Don't touch him...!" Reid shot up straight in the bed as he called out to a shadowy figure that existed only in his brain. His chest was heaving, and he could feel sweat rolling down his neck, his back. He ran a hand across his face as he hung his head, trying to catch his breath. He was so enveloped in trying to breathe, that he didn't realize that he'd woken Derek up.

In the darkness of the hotel room, Morgan rubbed a hand across his eye and reached a hand out, finding Reid's shoulder, "Reid, hey, what's wrong, kid?" He asked, his concern clouding any drowsiness that he was feeling at that point. He felt Spencer jump under his hand.

"I...I'm okay," Spencer opened and closed his mouth a time or two, eventually lifting his head and brushing his bangs away from his face, "It was just a nightmare," He said this partly for Derek, but mostly for himself, to remind himself that everything was okay, and that nothing bad was happening. Spencer couldn't see it, but he knew that Morgan was frowning, "I didn't mean to wake you up," He apologized, taking a deep breath, "Sorry about that,"

Morgan shook his head, "Don't worry, it's fine," Derek reassured the other. Spencer was still uneasy, even if he'd broken out of the nightmare, Derek could tell, and he didn't like it. The hand on Spencer's shoulder shifted and cupped the bony expanse of skin, "C'mere, kid," Derek urged as he guided Spencer to lay back down. The kid needed his rest, just like everyone.

But before Derek could really analyze what he was doing, he'd tugged Spencer against his chest, beneath the covers. Reid blinked once, registering the feel of Derek's skin against his arm. Spencer nearly pulled away, but Derek draped an arm around Spencer's shoulder, the motion pressed Spencer's ear against Morgan's bare chest.

Tha-thump...Tha-thump...

Derek's heart-beat.

Spencer swallowed and found his breath slowing, and becoming more relaxed. It was too dark for Reid to see Derek's face, or anything else for that matter, but he could hear the man's heart beating as clear as day. Spencer didn't fully understand why, but it was comforting, soothing. Reid felt himself relax in the loose grasp of Derek's arms, letting his eyes flutter shut. Spencer had been so scared, so paniced, but there was nothing to worry about. If anything bad ever happened to Reid, he knew that he could always count on Derek Morgan, he always had. Derek had been there for Spencer no matter what crossed their path; from the incident with Tobias Hankel, all the way to the anthrax scare.

Derek's mind slowly wound itself around what he'd just done. This was odd, wasn't it? But for Derek, it had just been reflex. After all, he was used to sharing beds with several different woman, many of which he usually held onto while he slept. Sleeping was just more comfortable when there was someone next to you. Derek tried not to think about how weird the move might have been, or how awkward this would be the next morning when Reid woke up and forgot about having the nightmare. Of course, should that happen, Derek wouldn't hesitate in whipping out a joke guaranteed to turn the boy's face into a lovely shade of cherry red. Derek felt Spencer's breath evening out and slowing down. Spencer was okay now. Derek found himself smiling slightly at the idea of being good for something other than just putting the bad guys away. Morgan wasn't just muscle, he was more than that, he always had been, even though sometimes, it didn't feel that way. Many people assumed that the man had more brawn than brain-cells, where that might be true sometimes, they often forgot that he had a good heart as well.

Finally closing his eyes, Derek adjusted his position against Spencer, letting his head rest above the boy's. Morgan could feel strands of Spencer's hair against his face, it was like Reid's own way of letting Derek know that he was there, and he was safe.

Spencer Reid slept soundly for the rest of the night, as did Derek Morgan.

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**Author's Notes**; Ugh, just, ugh, the beginning of this chapter was such a pain in the ass. Really. UGH! Seriously, I had the hardest time actually getting through it, which you can probably tell because I didn't put in as many details as I usually would have. But it also doesn't help that I'm suffering a terrible head-ache due to major lack of sleep.

And TA-DAH! Your first little but real taste of Morgan x Reid. I've been trying to make sure that I've been doing this slowly, but I didn't want the pace of the romance to slow down the pace of the plot-line and the characterization, so I hope that this worked out well. I kind of like the idea of Morgan catching onto his feelings before Reid does, because I feel that Reid is AWFULLY oblivious to things like this xD Reid's way too innocent to instantly assume that he's getting the hots for his studly dark chocolate partner ^_~ Also, this part with Derek and Spencer, that was the easy part. I wanna focus on them more just for that reason /;

Also, I'd like to mention, that I'm thinking of starting up another fic on this site. I'd really like to do one focusing on Hotch x Reid. But it'll be much more complicated than just that, of course (I love Morgan x Reid too much to leave Derek out completely) xD Even if I do start another one, I'll be sure to finish this one up, so no worries!


	9. Chapter 6

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; It's getting closer, I promise, but not quite yet ^_~  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Procedural, and budding romance.  
**Rating**; PG-13-ish.  
**Warnings**; Graphic descriptions, Gorey stuff, and many mentions of death, Pretty much the usual for this fic, but now we're also starting to get into the cute homo-fluff-ness w  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Phew, so we've been finally getting pieces of possible romance, or rather, I guess, at this point it's more of a bromance xD Hurk. As always, please Read and Review if you'd like to see more!

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_"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity,"_

_- Kahlil Gibran -_

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By the time that the night was over, both parties could have unanimously concluded that morning had come far too soon. It very well may have been the most peaceful night of rest that either of them had been gifted with in what felt like years and years.

Unfortunately, sleepless nights were just part of the job.

Just after the sun began to rise, Spencer found his dreams lifting away and allowing his consciousness to break through. His lashes fluttered open slowly, allowing light to touch his milk-chocolate irises before he snapped them shut once more in silent retaliation. It took him several moments to realize that when he tried to turn to sit up, there was something preventing him from doing so. A circle of warmth neatly surrounding his waist. Knitting his brows together, he soon settled back into his original position and opened his eyes.

Derek.

That's right.

They were on a case together, they were sharing a room and it had only one bed.

Spencer quickly recalled the events that led them to being entangled in one another's arms.

Reid had had another nightmare.

He'd been having more and more of them lately, and sometimes they struck even while he wasn't sleeping.

There was a deep rumbling sigh emanating from the figure beside him and he glanced up to scan his eyes over Derek's face. The other agent still appeared to be sleeping beyond soundly. A peaceful expression lingered on Morgan's face, his lips just barely parted and his lashes giving a gentle twitch every so often, justified by the fact that Derek must still be experiencing the REM stage of sleeping. How odd. If he was only now experiencing rapid eye movement, then was it possible that he'd stayed awake longer than Reid? Spencer pondered over the possibilities.

However, his thoughts were cut short when there was a light knocking at the door.

Spencer blinked and focused on the door, as if waiting to see if whoever it was would give up and leave.

Another knock.

Maneuvering his way out of Derek's arms, and earning a disappointed groan from the sleeping agent, Reid slipped off of the bed, nearly twisted his ankle and moved to the door as quickly as possible.

"Morgan! Reid! Time to get up!"

Obviously, not nearly quick enough.

Emily's voice sounded from the other side of the door along with a few more gentle knocks.

Reid swung the door open another moment later, letting out a drawn-out yawn that slightly garbled his words.

"What's with all of the noise, Pren-ahh-Prentiss?"

Shaking off his yawn, Reid waited for an answer.

"A note was just delivered to the police station, the chief thinks it's from our unsub." Emily informed.

Spencer's ears perked in interest, and with a quick glance over his shoulder, he saw that Morgan was finally rolling himself out of bed.

"The chief asked if you could come down right away to analyze it, since you're the best on our team with this," The female agent continued to explain, "J.J. and Rossi will be meeting with the family for some follow up and asking if they've seen anyone suspicious around Evan or if he's talked about anyone, and Hotch and I have some people to interrogate. I guess that leaves Morgan with you," She smiled pleasantly, looking past Spencer's shoulder and throwing a wave in Derek's direction as the agent ran a hand over his face. Derek wasn't Emily's type, not really, but she could admire a nice body when it was standing there shirtless, like Derek Morgan was. "Anyway, if you guys find anything important about the letter, you can call me or Hotch," She concluded before whisking herself down the hallway.

Reid closed the door behind her and turned in time to see Morgan pulling a fresh shirt over his head, "What was that about kid?" Derek inquired, straightening his shirt out as he glanced over at Spencer.

"A letter's been found at the police station, they think it's from the unsub," Reid noted, "They wanted us down there as soon as possible to analyze it,"

Morgan smirked, "And by _'us' _you mean _'you_,'"

Reid smiled gently, "If you want to be useful, you could always get me some coffee,"

Derek gave something between a laugh and a scoff as he grabbed his clothes and closed himself off in the bathroom to get dressed, "Hurry up, Pretty boy, they'll nag us if we take too long,"

With that said, Derek shut the door behind him, leaving Reid to use the rest of the apartment to change. Spencer changed quickly, shrugging off his Star Wars pants and folding them neatly before he tucked them away into his go-bag. It wasn't unusual that he was debating a few things while he did this. Actually, his mind was doing not only double-time, but triple-time as he mulled over the fact that he'd been able to sleep so well in Morgan's arms. But there was a logical reason behind it, right? He was warm, and he felt safe. That's all there was to it, wasn't it? While this made sense, Spencer couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it than that? Would he have slept so soundly had it been anyone else?

No.

He finally concluded.

Because he trusted Derek, with his life.

It made perfect sense.

Eventually, the two of them made their way to the police station. Both Reid and Morgan were greeted by the chief and informed that Hotch and Prentiss where currently interrogating some choice individuals who may have seen something. They were then led into a room that they could use to analyze the letter. The BAU had already been using this room earlier on. There was a board set up with a map, and pictures of the latest victim; Evan Foster. There were pictures of him both before and after his death, and of the crime-scene.

Reid settled promptly into one of the seats and read the letter quicker than anyone should have been able to do.

"You need anything else, you two let me know, alright?" The cheif offered, but seemed to be ignored as Spencer instantly began to rattle off the letter aloud.

Morgan smiled, "Yeah, we'll let you know what we figure out,"

The dark-skinned agent then shut the door behind him before he moved over to Reid's side, placing a hand againt the table and hovering over Spencer to read the letter. The letter was anything but what he expected to be reading.

_To whom it may concern._

It was necessary.

They got more than they deserved, but it needed to be done.

Without it, nothing would go as planned.

t was time for them to go, to serve their purpose.

It cannot be stopped, not now that it has begun.

Nothing can be done to end this before it's time.

Yours Truly.

It certainly wasn't much of a letter, was it? Not really.

Spencer knit his brows together. This wasn't much to go off of, was it? Definitely not. But it would be enough for him, right?

"What do you think, kid?" Derek inquired, getting ready for the flood-gate known as Reid to open up and spill out a plethera of knowledge.

Surprisingly enough, Spencer didn't begin to list off a speech filled with facts, instead, he was silent for a few long seconds.

"This...isn't our unsub,"

"What? How do you figure that?" Morgan's brow was quirked curiously. Sure, he knew that it could be a fake, but it had taken Spencer than three minutes to reach this conclusion, so just how did he know? Derek was sure that he'd get an answer, Reid loved to inform after all, and statistics were definitely a passion of his. Heh, Reid was too goofy for his own good sometimes.

"You see the way that the letters slope down?" One of Spencer's long fingers pointed to a good example, "This shows a likely submissive personality; along with a lack in self confidence, and even pessimism..." Reid continued to scrutinize the page, "The letters are also extremely narrow and extremely small, showing that they act on instinct and have an inferiority complex," Reid chewed his lip, "The unsub that we've been looking for has always shown a large amount of confidence, even over-confidence," Reid explained and then looked back up at Derek, "We're not looking for one unsub, we're looking for two of them; the unsub that we've been searching for is the dominant personality and the one who told the other partner what to write, the second unsub is the one that wrote this, a submissive personality,"

"You sure about that, pretty boy?"

"Yeah...and if that's the case, the first unsub is a woman..."

* * *

**Author's Notes**; Gah, I'm sorry for disappearing, please forgive me and take this cliff-hanger in deep apology T_T


	10. Chapter 7

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; *CoughCough*  
**Genre**; Crime, Drama, Procedural, and Budding Romance  
**Rating**; PG-13-ish.  
**Warnings**; Graphic descriptions, Gorey stuff, and many mentions of death, Pretty much the usual for this fic, but now we're also starting to get into the cute homo-fluff-ness w And OMG! Shameless flirting! Say it ain't so!  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Guh, I can't find my notes on the plot-line, so I actually don't know what should be happening at this point, and I don't want to drive all the way home to get them, because that'll take too long and there's a nasty-ass storm happening outside. So here I am, trying my best to replicate what my sick mind came up with weeks ago _; Enjoy, and pretty please, Read and Review!

Wow, It's been a day or so, and I wanted to thank everyone for the great reaction to the last chapter. I was worried that it was boring, but it looks like you guys liked it anyway. That makes me totally happy. A big thanks to everyone who's been with me from the beginning and another BIG thanks to everyone who's beginning to join in every day. It means a lot to me that more people are clicking on my demented little brain-child 3

And a special thanks to _Reidemption _for the fantastic critique, I really appreciate all of your kind words, thoughts, and opinions!

* * *

_" Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts."_

_- Arnold Bennett -_

* * *

It was several days later that the team found themselves back in Quantico, Virginia. No, the case was very far from being over, but they'd gotten all of the information that they could from the area and from the connections. Alas, nothing was leading to anymore breakthroughs, and they were running out of time. It was nearly the end of April, meaning that the first of May was quickly on it's way, along with another victim.

Whoever the next victim was going to be, they'd uncovered a few vital facts.

This victim would be fifty years old, they would be female, and her initials would be G and H.

Reid had been up all night, squeezed in side by side with Penelope Garcia in her so called little hole in the wall.

They'd been working all night.

"We still have no idea where the victim is going to be from,"

Spencer pressed a hand to the side of his face in thought as he ran his eyes over the victim list again.

The geographic profile was absolutely everywhere, there where no connections whatsoever and Reid just couldn't seem to figure it out, and neither could Garcia. The poor girl was exhausted; her bright purple eyeshadow and neon magenta lipstick where faded and smudged from a full day of work, and her multi-colored hair was drooped into her usually wide and excited eyes. She was really feeling it now, but she was trying to stay attentive, and awake. Spencer on the other hand, seemed just as keyed up as usual, it was probably all of that sugar in his coffee.

Taking another slurp of that sugary paste, Reid carefully perched his thermos between his knees and far away from the wall of precious computers. Penelope would absolutely kill him if he got anything on one of her precious keyboards. Of that there was no question at all.

"There's got to be a way to narrow this down, but...but what...?"

Spencer turned another page of the case files and Penelope sighed, "Reid, maybe we should just call it a night?" Garcia suggested, sagging forward onto her hand as she tried to prop her face up.

"No, not yet, we're almost there, I just know it," Spencer dragged his dilated eyes across the paper, "This unsub is too controlled to pick locations at random, there's a reason that he's targeting people from each area,"

Peneloped yawned and closed her eyes as Reid began to mumble to himself. Boy genius was really starting to wear her out, and she was finding it harder and harder to stay as sparkly as she usually was with this extreme sleep deprivation, "Garcia?" The sound of Reid's voice felt far away, and she couldn't seem to open her eyes, "Garcia?" Again, her eyes stayed closed, at least until her head swung forward and she felt her face firmly squashed onto her beloved keyboard, the accompanying beeping from the computer sent her bolting upright.

"Oh? Ah, oh no, no no no!"

In a panic, she stared at the computers, fully awake as she furiously typed. Eventually, the computer calmed and all was right in cyberworld. With a heavy sigh, she hung her head and rubbed the side of one monitor with her hand, "That's it, baby, mummy's sorry,"

Reid sat up in concern, "Garcia, hey...why don't I drive you home?"

Garcia's eyes widened, "No way, Boy genius. I love you, but not enough to get in the passenger's seat beside you,"

Spencer gave a small and tired smile, "At least let me walk you out to your car," He offered pilotely, worried that Penelope was sleepy enough to fall asleep in the elevator and spend the whole night there.

"Esther,"

"Huh?"

"My car, her name's Esther," Garcia correctly promptly as she began to gather her things.

"Right...Esther," Reid agreed, letting out a yawn, "I guess we've been here too long, we'll have plently of time to work on this with the rest of the..." Spencer trailed off, eyes looking distant before something clicked, "Work! That's it!"

Garcia lifted her brows, "Wait...what? Reid, what's it?"

"Work! The victims all had similar careers; Evan Foster was a firefighter, Claire Diaz was a Lawyer, Anthony Barnes was a doctor..." He began to rattle off in excitement, clearly Garcia was confused though, so he explained, "All of those jobs, they're all things that children dream of doing when they're older, all of them have been categorized as children dream jobs for years!"

"Wwhat about Aileen Brown, she was only eighteen...she was barely out of high-school...and the other younger victims, they didn't have the education to..."

"But, she was working in a veterinary office as a recepitionist and her parents said that she already earned a full-ride scholarship to one of the nearby universities, she'd always dreamed of being a full time vet,"

"Reid, Reid you're right," She turned in her chair, and pulled up a file, all jobs of each victim.

Spencer scanned over it, "There's got to be a job that the unsub hasn't done yet," He pursed his lips, "Garcia, pull up a list of the most popular children's dream-jobs,"

Garcia nodded and obediently did so.

A large list popped up onto the screen. Reid was finished reading before Garcia was half-way done.

He pointed at that screen, "That's it, there,"

"Zoo-keeper?"

Reid nodded, he was sure of it.

"Cross-reference zoo employees with females in their fifties,"

Another nod and another list came up,

"Can you narrow that down to the initials G and H?"

"Yeah, sure thing," And another list was pulled up.

Gale Hudgins.

Gina Hales.

Georgia Harley.

Gabriela Huwe.

Gaye Hansen.

Georgette Heeley.

Gianna Hughes.

Geraldine Heinz.

Gwen Heinrich.

Gillian Herne.

Gladys Howard.

Gloria Havard.

Grace Howe.

Gretchen Hadsell.

Gabrielle Hatch.

Gaby Havers.

A total of sixteen names, from all over the country.

These women were all fifty years old, worked in zoos and had the initials of G and H.

And one of them would he scheduled to die on the first of May.

Garcia swallowed hard, "So it's...it's one of them, they're going to be the next victim, right?"

Reid nodded, "How do we know which one though? There's no pattern to where they're being found, these murders have been all across the East Coast," She mentioned worriedly.

"..." Spencer paused and then had quite the lightbulb moment, "We'll have them come to us," Garcia blinked, so Reid explained further, "The unsub is stubborn, he's not going to go off script, if he can't find one person to fit his...her perameters, then she'll keep looking,"

Garcia nodded and yawned again, "Can we just let Hotch know in the morning?"

Reid looked down at the clock, it was nearly four in the morning. Technically speaking, they had four hours until they had to come back, "Oh...uhm, yeah, here, let's get you home, alright?" Garcia happily obliged and nearly skipped to her beloved Esther.

Spencer on the other hand, chose not to go home that night, instead, he walked Garcia to her car and headed to the BAU room. He hated driving anyway, so he'd just get some rest in one of the chairs. He'd be fine by morning, he was sure of it.

Speaking of morning, it came all too soon.

Reid was seated in one of the chairs situated around the round-table, and he was still fast asleep. His arms were folded under his head, his neck was turned to the side and his lips were parted very slightly as he drew in deep breaths, eyes fluttering sleepily. The sun was already ascending up into the sky, but Spencer didn't move any more than his fingers giving a gentle twitch every few moments, at least until a hand grazed his shoulder, "Spencer...Hey, Spencer," A soft voice tickled the drums of his ears, slowly pulling him from sleep.

He knew that voice.

But who was it again?

"Spencer...?" The touch shook his shoulder gently.

"Huh?" Slowly, Spencer's eyes cracked open, "...Ni...Nicolette...?"

That's right, the intern, it was her.

Slowly, Reid pushed himself up, instantly clasping a hand to the back of his neck, "Oww," He groaned softly.

The girl looked down at him in concern, "Have you been here all night?"

Spencer nodded, "Yeah...I...we found something out, it was late and I didn't want to drive home," Reid and cars didn't mix, they just didn't, "Has someone started coffee?" He asked drowsily.

Nicolette smiled gently, "Mhmm, I put a pot on when I got in, it should be just about done, I'll go get you a cup,"

Spencer rubbed his hands over his eyes, "Thanks,"

The young woman brushed her way out of the BAU room and down the hall to grab a mug from the counter. She knew just how he liked his coffee, it was a perfect ratio every time. She'd taken the time to learn this about Spencer, because she found it to be important. She tugged the pot out from under the filtering mechanism and poured the piping hot liquid into the waiting mug. With that done, she scrounged through the counter to find the container of sugar and poured in the proper amount before stirring to dissolve the powder.

Just the way Reid liked it.

Nicolette let herself back into the BAU room, holding the mug delicately in her grip before sitting beside him and setting the cup before him. Spencer gave another, "Thanks," Before he lifted the mug and blew a breath across the surface of the hot beverage, taking a slow and careful sip as he closed his eyes. Ahhh, that felt so good. Coffee certainly made the world go round in the humble opinion of Doctor Spencer Reid.

"You must be exhausted from sleeping in that chair all night," Nicolette concluded, rising to her feet and slipping behind him, "And you've been rubbing your neck since I got her," She mentioned, touching both of her hands to the back of Spencer's neck.

Reid felt himself stiffen slightly, "Yeah, I...uhh, It's just a little stiff, that's all," He explained, before going on one of his trademarked rants, "Did you know that a consistantly stiff neck is a common sign of meningitis?" Nicolette laughed softly behind him as she gently began to knead her fingers against his neck. For one of the very first times in his life, Reid found his brain stalling. Nicolette's fingers were soft and gentle as they pressed and rubbed against the aggitated flesh of his neck.

"Let me take care of it for you?" She offered, "My father used to be a chiropractor over in France, he taught me a little,"

Spencer swallowed hard and slowly set his cup back down, letting his head roll forward, hair falling around his face as he did so. He wasn't good with girls, but this...felt nice, so that was good enough, wasn't it? Obviously, he was doing something right, right? It sure seemed that way.

Regardless, neither Nicolette nor Spencer was aware that Derek Morgan was making his daily appearance a little earlier than usual. He hadn't really been able to get to sleep, and since he'd taken care of Clooney that morning, there was little else for him to do at the moment. He was heading to the BAU room with a freshly prepared mug of coffee in one hand. Before he'd even reached the room, he could see outlines through the blinds.

Derek squinted.

Someone was there already?

No, two of them?

Morgan knew that long mussed hair.

Reid. Reid was there. Not surprising.

But who was with him?

Long auburn hair, pale skin, a sexy little forest green office-dress.

Nicolette?

An odd expression came over Derek's features. Something caught between a thin line and a grinding jaw. He wasn't sure if he was happy to see Nicolette and the kid getting so close to one another. Sure, he knew that they got along, but Nicolette was all over him. This was when he noticed the girl's hands on Reid's neck, brushing through his hair as she laughed with him gently. Derek wondered if Reid had just told one of his horrible physics jokes again. Come on, no one actually understood Reid's jokes, the kid was terribly at being funny when he tried. Still, there was something horrendously endearing about that fact.

If you asked Derek, he was just worried about Reid. Spencer was oblivious with girls, and he didn't want the kid getting himself hurt, then again, Spencer seemed to cautious to really get involved with anyone at work. If Morgan was too smart for that, then Reid definitely was...right? Derek sure hoped so.

As long as Derek kept his eyes on the two, he realized that he may have just gotten to the distinguished level of 'creeper,' it wasn't his job to stand here and keep surveilance on the two of them. If they were hittin' it off, who was he to judge? Reid had a right to be happy, and if Nicolette made him happy, then Derek wasn't going to take it away. However, Morgan still had a right to be in that office.

Drawing in a breath, he pushed passed the door, acting as though he hadn't been watching them from the bull-pen, "Morning you two," He greeted, dragging his jacket off of his shoulders and draping it over a chair. Reid looked up almost instantly with a hazy smile, the circles under his eyes were darker than usual, and Derek found himself frowning. That kid needed rest, it was evident.

"Morning Morgan," Reid returned the warm gesture with a smile, tilting his head as Nicolette pulled her hands away slowly, glancing at Derek all the way from his face to his feet.

The female interjected, "I should get going, let me know if either of you need anything," And she gracefully slid out of the room, throwing a playful wink in Reid's direction.

Morgan stared at Reid as the door shut, "What was that all about?"

Reid swallowed, "What was what about?"

Derek chuckled, "Don't play dumb, kid, it doesn't suit you," Morgan smiled warmly and tipped his head in the direction of the door, "You guys got something goin' on? I thought you said it was against policy to date co-workers,"

Reid's face flushed gently, "We're not dating. I just...I just feel asleep here, and my neck was sore. She said that her father was a chiropractor and that he'd taught her some things, that's all it was,"

Derek ingested this information, "So...what you saying? She isn't your type?"

Reid pursed his lips and looked down, running his finger against the edge of the coffee mug, "Well, I..." He trailed off, "Garcia and I compiled a list of the next possible victims, there's sixteen of them; all fifty years old, all female, with the initials of G and H," Reid was trying to get himself out of this, and Derek could tell, "And...they're zoo-keepers,"

Derek lifted a brow, "Zoo-keepers?"

Honestly though, he was still more interested in knowing how Spencer felt about Nicolette.

Why?

Hell if he knew.

* * *

**Author's Notes**; Whooo, another chapter. And cue the Nicolette bashing [/Hurk]


	11. Reference Victim List 3

Victims list, so far...Updated for your convenience...and mine.

**Author's notes**; This is strictly for reference. I've been working hard, you see? And I'm quite proud of how this is coming together so far, watch...Now I'm gonna find out that I've made a mistake somewhere. Oh well.

Here is the format to the list, so you understand a bit more.  
[[ Name ]] [[ Sex ]] [[ Age ]] [[ Month of Death ]] [[ Career ]]  
Cause of Death;  
Location of Body;  
Ta-dah, easy, yes? I sure hope so. This will probably be the last update to this list, but I'm not sure yet ^^; Hah. If you notice any glaring mistakes, please let me know, yes? Please and thank you! 3

Perhaps it would have been easy to continuously update only one list instead of posting it over and over, ahh well, too late to go back now. I think better this way anyways.

* * *

[[ Aileen Brown ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Eighteen ]] [[ January ]] [[ Vet ]]  
Cause of Death; Major arteries cut, by x-acto knife.  
Location of Body; Restrained into a corner, by wooden boards that had been nailed into the adjacent walls.

[[ Cole Davis ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty ]] [[ February ]] [[ At Home Daycare ]]  
Cause of Death; Blunt force trauma, butter knife handle repeatedly swung into the back of the head.  
Location of Body; Found tied to a kitchen chair, found floating in the pool of an apartment complex.

[[ Emma Flores ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-two ]] [[ March ]] [[ Photographer ]]  
Cause of Death; Hypothermia, and possible claustrophobia, resulting in panic attack.  
Location of Body; Locked in a full-sized refridgerator that had been chained shut.

[[ Gabriel Harris ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-four ]] [[ April ]] [[ Dancer ]]  
Cause of Death; Asphyxiated by a bar of soap.  
Location of Body; In the backseat of an abandoned car that was found down an alley-way.

[[ Isa Johnson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Twenty-six ]] [[ May ]] [[ Ballerina ]]  
Cause of Death; Blood loss, lacerations across back caused by a wire-hanger  
Location of Body; Found in a changing room in a department store.

[[ Kevin Long ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Twenty-eight ]] [[ June ]] [[ Racecar Driver ]]  
Cause of Death; Starvation.  
Location of Body; Paralyzed by drugs, he was found restrained in a bed, neatly tucked under the covers.

[[ Mia Nelson ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty ]] [[ July ]] [[ Artist ]]  
Cause of Death; Overdose of sleeping medication.  
Location of Body; Found in the dumpster behind a dentist office.

[[ Owen Price ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-two ]] [[ August ]] [[ Pilot ]]  
Cause of Death; Drowned while unconscious.  
Location of Body; Found under a parked car behind a post-office.

[[ Quinta Rodriguez ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-four ]] [[ September ]] [[ Dentist ]]  
Cause of Death; Buried alive beneath hundreds of muddy shoes.  
Location of Body; Found in a seven foot deep pit in a parking garage.

[[ Sean Taylor ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Thirty-six ]] [[ October ]] [[ Writer ]]  
Cause of Death; Hung upside down by his feet, with leather belts.  
Location of Body; Discovered in a sewer.

[[ Una Vincent ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Thirty-eight ]] [[ November ]] [[ Nurse ]]  
Cause of Death; Lungs filled with cough-syrup.  
Location of Body; Found in the back of a semi-truck.

[[ Wesley Xander ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty ]] [[ December ]] [[ Police Officer ]]  
Cause of Death; Blood loss. Blood was drawn with hundreds of individual needles.  
Location of Body; Found in an alley, behind a candy-store.

[[ Yvonne Ziegler ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-two ]] [[ January ]] [[ Teacher ]]  
Cause of Death; Drowned in a local river.  
Location of Body; Discovered in a popular restaurant's freezer.

[[ Anthony Barnes ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-four ]] [[ February ]] [[ Doctor ]]  
Cause of Death; Severe head injuries. Cranium slammed repeatedly against a counter.  
Location of Body; Found in the principal's office of an elementary school.

[[ Claire Diaz ]] [[ Female ]] [[ Forty-six ]] [[ March ]] [[ Lawyer ]]  
Cause of Death; Pneumonia.  
Location of Body; Found beneath a child's bed.

[[ Evan Foster ]] [[ Male ]] [[ Forty-eight ]] [[ April ]] [[ Fire-fighter ]]  
Cause of Death; Asphyxiated with a dozen and a half tongue-depressors.  
Location of Body; Found under a desk at a day-care center. 

* * *

Victim number seventeen? Soon to come?


	12. Chapter 8

**Title**; With all odds against us.  
**Pairings**; So close, just say it already, Derek, Dammit! O;  
**Genre**; Crime, Lots of ooey gooey Drama, Procedural, and Budding Romance  
**Rating**; PG-13-ish.  
**Warnings**; Graphic descriptions, Gorey stuff, and many mentions of death, Homo-fluffness beware! And excessive snuggling and such! D'awws 3  
**Story Style**; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.  
**Disclaimer**; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.  
**Author's Notes**; Ack, so one of my favorite roleplayers has seemed to completely vanish and it has made me very sad T_T I MISS YOU JANIE! AND SO DOES REID! ... o.o; Yes... So if anyone wants to have a Criminal Minds RP with me, I'd totally love you for it, PM and we can talk it over and figure out where we can host it [/wink] As you can imagine, I love playing Reid, for he is super oodles of fun 3

So I'm so so sorry that I took so long with this T_T I lost my notes! I've been trying to find them, but I have no idea where they've gotten to, so I'm trying to retrace my steps and remember what was going to happen. GAH! O; I'm very unhappy about this fact T_T *Sniff*

As always; Enjoy, Read, and Review...or ERR ._.; I fail at making funnies T_T;; I'll stick with drama and smut.

* * *

_" The most beautiful dream is coming out of a nightmare,"_

_Nancy Wood_

* * *

During the course of the day, once the rest of the BAU members showed up, there was a meeting carried out and information was exchanged. Reid got Hotch to agree to warning all of the possible victims with initials of GH and to escourt them to Quantico for questioning. Sure, it was a bit of a hassle, but it was less of a hassle than the team flying all over the East Coast. This way, the possible victims could be interviewed about their daily lives and questioned about anything or anyone suspicious happening around them lately. Not to mention, it was so much easier to protect them this way. It was just easier all the way around.

Unfortunately for Reid though, he seemed to be taking his severe lack of sleep pretty hard that day. As he sat in his chair, he kept slumping forward, nearly high-fiving the desk below him with his forehead. Derek placed a hand on his arm and asked if he was okay. Spencer waved off Derek's concern with a small smile. However, Morgan was still concerned. Reid just hadn't been the same lately. Derek couldn't quite name it, but there was definitely something different about the kid. Something. But what Exactly? Morgan just didn't know.

The whole team was worried.

Eventually though, Hotch realized that Spencer just wasn't in the condition to help them anymore, and he let Reid go early. Of course, Spencer argued at first, saying that he was fine and that he wanted to stay and help, but Rossi said something that struck him and in the end, he went back home.

That night, Spencer followed his regular routine; kicking his shoes off by the door, throwing his mismatched socks into the laundry hamper, and heading to the bathroom for a nice hot shower. Once clean and orderly, he cooked himself a TV dinner while he watched another re-run of Star Trek. It was common knowledge that Reid was far from a four-star chef, and he didn't like the idea of cooking an entire meal for one person, just to end up eating the same thing for the next four days. Outside of the BAU, Spencer's life from far from exciting, and twice as lonely as it was when he was surrounded by his fellow team-members. Reid didn't necessarily like to admit it, but sometimes, he wondered what it was like to have a family around and there for you, someone waiting for you when you got home late at night.

Spencer shook his head, he really didn't need to be thinking about this right now.

Running a hand through his still slightly dampened hair, he padded his way into his bedroom, pulled the covers up and tucked himself in for the night - or so he had hoped.

Unfortunately for Reid, his night was anything was peaceful.

Not long after his eyes closed and his breath slowed, terrible things began to invade his brilliant mind. Dark shadowed figures. Dozens of them. Looming and trecherous. Vile and horrific. While he was sure that he'd never seen before, they seemed...familiar, as though someone had once described them before. As if he'd seen them through someone else's eyes instead of his own. But how? And where? And through who?

As the night carried on, a cold sweat broke out against Spencer's fair-toned skin, his breath hitching as his lips parted and closed numerous times. His mind was churning and causing his fingers to scratch hard into the soft covers beneath him (covers decorated in pictures of pheasants, no less, a gift from Gideon,) No matter what he did, what he thought, those horrible apparitions continued to invade his vision.

"No...N-no...Ge-get away..."

Soft, terrified mumbles escaped his lips as his head turned to the side, body rolling onto his shoulder and instinctively folding into a comforting fetal position. But the figures followed his closed line of sight, trailing after him, looming over him, claws extending and reaching toward him.

"No!"

A scream of sheer panic ripped through him as his eyes flew wide open.

The figures didn't disappear, they were still there, their faces slowly melting into the various victims that he'd failed to save over the years. For Reid, these faces were even more terrifying than all the faces of the menacing unsubs that he'd come face to face with. Spencer just couldn't handle the grip.

With reality seemingly so far out of his reach, the young genius rolled himself across the bed, attempting to jump onto his feet, but only to falter and crash to the floor on the other side of the bed. There was a audible thunk and a stinging pain that told him that he'd hit the left side of his head on the nightstand lingering next to his bed. He clasped a hand over the spot as he laid crumpled on the floor. He hadn't noticed that his descent to the floor had thrown his cell-phone to the ground and had landed in such a way to trigger the speed dial option. Figures now crawled in slow haunting motions from under his bed, and any chance that he might have heard the sound of Morgan's voice on the other line, "...Reid...?"

"Ge-get away from me!"

Spencer's panic filled voice echoed through the room and the phone speaker as he clambered his way back into a corner.

Morgan's heart suddenly raced in his chest, despite the fact that he'd been soundly asleep just moments before. Spencer's voice sounded so far away, "Reid! C'mon, answer me, man!" Nothing, no answer other than sobs and pleads for someone...something...to get away from the genius. In a rush, Morgan threw his front door open, and was in his car, practically speeding to Reid's place. There was no way that Derek could know what was happening to the brilliant mind that had just called him in a panic, but something had been going on with Spencer lately, and now it certainly seemed like the kid was in a giant mess of trouble.

In what felt like hours later, Morgan was rushing his way to Spencer's front door. Even standing beyond the wooden barrier, he could hear Spencer screaming. Adrenaline pulsed through him, and before he knew it, he'd shoved the door in with his shoulder, after turning the knob didn't open it. As per usual, Derek had brought his gun with him and had it poised before him, expecting some sort of intruder as he ran toward the sound of Spencer's panicking. Toward Spencer's bedroom. What he saw, was not was he was expecting.

Spencer Reid was curled in on himself in a corner, arms shielding his face as his long hair framed his jaw, his entire body was shaking and he was violently shaking his head from one side to the other, muttering and shouting inaudible words all at once. "Reid!" Morgan instinctively lowered the gun and dashed to Spencer's side, his eyes scanned the area, but found nothing besides mussed bedsheets and the knocked over nightstand.

The minute that Derek's hand touched Spencer's shoulder, the boy reflexively tried to get away from him, hands pushing against the wall, "No...! No, don't me!" With Spencer's hands no longer blocking his face, Derek could see the tears trailing down his cheeks.

"Reid! Spencer!"

Morgan could see the unabashed fear in the other's wide doe-like eyes, it was almost as if Spencer didn't know who he was anymore. "C'mon, Kid, it's me Morgan. It's Derek," He tried to explain. Spencer's eyes scanned him over frantically, as his jaw quaked. "Kid, what happened to you?" Derek reached his hand forward again and something inside of Spencer seemed to break down.

"M...Morgan...?" Spencer's voice was weak, fragile, and gritty from his screaming. Suddenly, he was the most vulnerable creature in the world, and Derek felt sick just thinking that it had taken him so long to get there, even with the speeding. Another moment passed as Spencer held himself shaking and trembling against the wall, "...Morgan," He croaked before practically throwing himself forward, arms winding themselves around Derek's shoulders as he pressed his dampened face against a broad shoulder.

Morgan could only clutch onto the boy after the initial surprise throttled him. Reid was shaking like a leaf in a storm, his breath was hot, but his skin was cool to the touch, slickened with sweat. "Reid, what's going on? Is someone here, did someone do this to you?" Morgan ran a hand against the side of Reid's face to push back stray strands of hair as Reid shook his head frantically, but when he pulled his hand away, he felt something thick and sticky against his palm. The lights to the room weren't on, but in the dull moonlight sneaking through the blinds, Derek could see that the substance on his palm was crimson in color, "Fuck," He muttered under his breath, "Reid, I'm right here, but let me just turn the li..."

"W...wait, no, don't...don't let go," Reid interrupted before Derek even had time to finish, his long fingers curling into the man's t-shirt, evidently the one that he'd worn to bed.

Morgan bit his tongue, "Kid, you're bleeding, I need to take care of you,"

Reid continued to quake, slowly, rational thought was returning to the boy, "O-okay...just...don't go?"

Derek nodded, not that Reid could see it, "Don't you worry, I'm staying right here, pretty boy," This wasn't the time for jokes, but this term had becoming more endearing for Derek as time had gone on, that and it was already a habit of his. After managing to peel himself away from the younger agent, Derek fumbled briefly with his hand against the wall before the light flickered on. Morgan vaguely noticed that one of the bulbs was burned out in the overhead fan. That didn't seem like Reid at all, then again, neither had this.

Morgan reached down to help Reid to his feet, taking a moment to stare the kid in the eyes. There was something heartbreaking about the look in Reid's eyes at that point, as if he was just barely waking up from a horrible nightmare and realizing that everything around him wasn't really there...no, that might not have been the best way to put it, the poor guy looked like he was still afraid that a monster was going to claw it's way out of the closet and devour him. With the light's now on, he could clearly see the smears of blood streaked down the left side of his face, and where Derek had unknowingly smeared blood into the boy's brown hair, "C'mere, let's go get you cleaned up," Morgan offered, guiding Spencer into the bathroom.

Reid leaned against the porcelaine sink, his chest still shuddering, "Here, sit down before you end up falling," Morgan suggested, pushing the lid to the toilet seat down, "Damn near gave me a heart-attack,"

Spencer swallowed dryly, almost appearing to be ignoring Morgan, but Derek wasn't quite sure if it was that simple. Things with Reid were never quite that cut and dry, the kid was complicated, that was for sure. Derek sighed and ran a washcloth under the tap water, letting it get just warm enough so that it wouldn't startle Reid when it touched his skin. Morgan also prepared an antiseptic wipe and a bandage. Kneeling in front of Reid, the darker agent pushed Spencer's hair out of the way, "Reid...what happened?" Morgan watched as Spencer gave an audible swallow, the Adam's apple in his throat bobbing nervously. Reid didn't want to answer. Derek didn't repeat his question as he began to clean the wound. It wasn't a deep cut, and only about an inch long. It wasn't life-threatening by any means. Derek found himself thanking god for that fact.

Derek set the cloth down and grabbed the small sterile wipe, but he was stopped when Reid clasped onto his wrist, "I...I don't know..." Spencer stuttered softly, "It was...I...No one was here," Reid's voice quaked, "N-no one was here," It didn't sound like Spencer was trying to tell Morgan this, rather, it sounded like Spencer was trying to convince himself, "I just...I don't think..."

Morgan let out a gentle, "Shh," as he lifted the wipe and smoothed it against the cut, "It's alright, Reid, you don't have to worry about it right now, okay?" Sure, he had been the one who asked, but he also realized that it would probably be best to bring this up again later, "You want me to stay with you tonight?"

Spencer carefully released his wrist and nodded slowly, before he answered meekly, "Please?"

Derek let a soft, reassuring soft of smile lift one side of his lips, "Sure thing, pretty boy,"

Spencer swallowed again and waited patiently as Derek finished patching him up, applying a thin layer of antibiotic before pressing the bandage into place. When Derek set the box of bandages aside, Reid wound his arms around Derek's waist, "Thank you, Morgan...thank you,"

Something inside of Morgan's heart pulsed at the nearly whispered words, "Don't worry about it," Derek ran a hand through Spencer's hair. There were still traces of blood in it, shown when he pulled his hand away, but somehow, he didn't think that Reid would be up for a shower or a bath right now, so he grabbed the washcloth, turned it inside out and rubbed out all the blood that he could, "We should go get you back into bed, you're gonna need your rest," Morgan dropped the rag into the sink.

Spencer's fingers tightened their grip on Derek's shirt, "As long as you stay with me," Reid repeated, almost like a mantra.

Derek nodded, "You've got nothing to worry about, Pretty boy, I'll be right here, the whole time,"

Reid took this reassurance happily with a small and almost undectable smile, "Thanks..."

Morgan led Reid back into the bedroom, letting Spencer lay down and get comfortable before he turned the lights to the room back off and slipped under the sheets next to Reid. This wasn't as awkward as it had been the first night that they'd slept side by side, however, Morgan as a little caught off guard when Spencer's hand snaked under the covers and found Derek's own hand. However, Morgan didn't protest, instead, he squeezed the genius' palm tenderly and smiled in the darkness, "Sweet dreams, kid,"

* * *

**Author's Notes**; So...can YOU guess what's wrong with Reid? Cyber cookie for anyone who gets it right ^_~

Also, just a note about his pheasant covered bedsheets, in the last DVD of the first season of Criminal Minds, there's an interview with MGG and he shows you his bedsheets which are in fact covered in pheasants. True story. I just thought it was fitting to stick in there because Gideon was obsessed with birds, and we all miss him, whether he knows it or not.


	13. Announcement

Author's Notes!

Sorry guys, this is NOT an update,  
However, I am making this to tell all of you that I WILL be continuing this story!  
I just need to re-read everything and find all of my notes, Since I can't remember what was happening anymore ^^;  
I hope to have the next chapter up in a week!  
But if you let me know that you're still interested,  
Maybe I'll be encouraged to work a little harder *HintHint*


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